Mixed Convection of Nanofluid in a Cavity with Moving Sidewalls and Sinusoidal Heated Bottom Wall

Mixed convection of Al2O3-water nanofluid inside a square cavity has been investigated numerically. The geometry was a square cavity with sinusoidal heated or isothermal bottom wall, insulated top wall, and moving downward cold side walls. The Grashof number was kept at 104 and effects of increase in shear force due to the moving side walls were investigated. Also effect of increase in nanoparticles volume fraction on the rate of heat transfer was investigated. It was found that the type of thermal boundary condition on the bottom wall did not affect the flow patterns significantly. Also the obtained results showed that the rate of heat transfer increased with increase in nanoparticles volume fraction and Richardson number. At low Richardson numbers the cavity with isothermal bottom wall had a higher heat transfer rate compared to the other, while at high Richardson number a reverse trend was observed.

Keywords:

Mixed convection , Square cavity , Sinusoidal heating , Nanofluid , Lid-Driven