Conjugate Natural Convection in a Square Porous Cavity Filled with a Nanofluid in the Presence of Two Isothermal Cylindrical Sources

Abstract

In this work, a numerical study has been performed for the problem of steady-state natural convection in a square porous cavity having a solid wall of finite thickness and conductivity filled by a nanofluid in the presence of two isothermal cylindrical sources. The external walls of the cavity are considered adiabatic and the circular sources are maintained at a hot and cold uniform temperatures. The internal thick wall has been a conducting solid. The governing dimensionless equations are solved using Galerkin finite element method and Darcy-Brinkman model assumed to be adopted. The results are presented as isotherms, streamlines, stream function values, average and local Nusselt number for various combinations of Rayleigh and Darcy numbers, concentration of nanoparticles, Thermal conductivity ratio, and dimensionless wall thickness of the solid portion. The convection heat transfer can be enhanced by increasing of these parameters except for the wall thickness.