Conjugate natural convection in an inclined nanofluid‐filled enclosure

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to numerically examine the conjugate natural convection in an inclined enclosure with a conducting centred block. This enclosure is filled with an Ethylene Glycol‐copper nanofluid. This study utilises numerical simulations to quantify the effects of pertinent parameters such as the Rayleigh number, the solid volume fraction, the length and the thermal conductivity of the centred block and the inclination angle of the enclosure on the conjugate natural convection characteristics.

Design/methodology/approach

The SIMPLE algorithm is utilised to solve the governing equations with the corresponding boundary conditions. The convection‐diffusion terms are discretised by a power‐law scheme and the system is numerically modelled in FORTRAN.

Findings

The results show that the utilisation of the nanofluid enhances the thermal performance of the enclosure and that the length of the centred block affects the heat transfer rate. The results also show that the higher block thermal conductivity results in a better heat transfer that is most noticeable at low Rayleigh numbers, and that increasing the inclination angle improves the heat transfer, especially at high Rayleigh numbers.

Originality/value

This paper presents an original research on conjugate natural convection in nanofluid‐filled enclosures.

Citation

Aminossadati, S.M. and Ghasemi, B. (2012), "Conjugate natural convection in an inclined nanofluid‐filled enclosure", International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, Vol. 22 No. 4, pp. 403-423. https://doi.org/10.1108/09615531211215729