Analysis of Transient Natural Convective Flow of a Nanofluid in a Vertical Tube

Abstract

An analysis into the transient natural convective flow of a nanofluid in a vertical tube is made. The governing equations of momentum, heat transfer and nanoparticle volume fraction are deduced, and the influence of the thermophoresis parameter and Brownian motion is incorporated. By direct integration and variation of the parameter, analytical solutions are obtained for flow formation and heat/mass transfer at steady-state. On the other hand, due to the complexity of same problem at transient state, a numerical solution is used to solve the discretized equations of motion using the implicit finite difference technique. The influence of the thermophoresis parameter and Brownian motion is noted and well discussed. For accuracy check, a numerical comparison is made between the steady state and transient state solution at large time; this comparison gives an excellent agreement. The role of various principal parameters on velocity profile, temperature, concentration of nanoparticles, Sherwood and Nusselt numbers are presented graphically and well discussed. It is noted that the buoyancy ratio decreases the fluid velocity significantly.

Keywords

• nanofluid
• transient
• natural convection
• heat transfer
• vertical tube