Natural convection induced by undulated surfaces in a porous enclosure filled with nanoliquid

Abstract

Effect of surface undulation on convective flow in a porous enclosure is investigated in this present article. The porous enclosure is filled with a water-base nanoliquid containing Cu solid nanoparticles, and the porous layer is modeled using the Darcy law. The governing equations are solved numerically using the built-in finite element method of COMSOL. The investigation was carried out for several parameters: the nanoparticle concentration, ϕ ; the amplitude of undulations, A ; the number of undulations, N ; and the Rayleigh number, Ra . It is concluded that the strength of the nanoliquid circulation increases with increasing the amplitude or number undulations. It is found that the heat transfer rates were sensitive to the variation of undulation property, convection intensity, and nanoparticle concentration.