Abstract—In this paper, natural convection heat transfer of a partitioned square cavity filled with Al2O3-water nanofluid is investigated. The vertical left and right walls are considered as the hot and cold walls, respectively and the partition assumed to be adiabatic. The influence of different parameters such as: Rayleigh number (Ra=103-106), distance from the hot wall (d=0.3H-0.7H) and height of partition (h=0.1H-0.3H) and volume fractions of nanoparticles (φ=0-20%) are studied. Results are presented in the form of streamlines, isotherms and average Nusselt number. According to the results, the location and height of the partition are important factors that affect the streamlines and isotherms, especially as the Rayleigh number goes up. It is also found that, the increase in Rayleigh number, increases the average Nusselt number for all the nanofluid volume fractions, but for the studied case, the average Nusselt number is not sensitive to the volume fraction and slight changes occurred. The increment in average Nusselt number is strongly dependent on the partition distance from the hot wall. The highest amount is when the partition’s distance is 0.5H.
Index Terms—Nanofluid, Natural Convection, Partition,Square Cavity.
Amin Habibzadeh is with the mechanical engineering department,engineering faculty, Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamedan, Iran (correspondingauthor to provide phone: +989143475671;E-mail: amin.habibzadeh@yahoo.com).
Habibollah Sayehvand is with the mechanical engineering Department,engineering faculty, Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamedan, Iran (e-mail: hsayehvand@yahoo.com).
Abolghasem Mekanik is with the mechanical engineering Department,engineering faculty, Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamedan, Iran (e-mail:meka47ir@yahoo.com).
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Cite: Amin Habibzadeh, Habibollah. Sayehvand, and Abolghasem. Mekanik, "Numerical Study of Natural Convection in a Partitioned Square Cavity Filled with Nanofluid," International Journal of Chemical Engineering and Applications vol. 2, no. 4, pp. 261-267, 2011.
