Numerical Study of Heat Transfer by Mixed Convection in a Cavity Filled With Nanofluid: Influence of Reynolds and Grashof Numbers

In this work, a numerical study of stationary laminar mixed convection in a ventilated square cavity has been presented. The cavity is filled with different nanofluids and contains two gates (ports) to enter and exit the flow. The straight vertical wall is maintained at a warm temperature, while the other walls are considered adiabatic. The equations governing flow and heat transfer have been solved by the finite volume method using a second-order centered Upwind scheme. Numerical simulations are carried out in the case of pure water fluid, and mixtures of this basic fluid and nanoparticles (Ag and Cu), for Ri varying from (0.04 to 4) and a volume fraction of the nanoparticles between (0% and 10%). The study presented in this work is devoted to a dynamic study in which the Grashof number is fixed at 104, and the Reynolds number is varied. The numerical results obtained show that the heat transfer increases with the increase in the volume fraction also that the enhancement of the product of entropy generation and heat transfer increases considerably with the increase in the Reynolds number. The most effective nanoparticles for increasing the heat exchange rate are Ag. The latter is characterized by a large local Nusselt number, that is to say, a very good heat transfer compared to that of metallic Cu nanoparticles.