Numerical Simulation of Natural Convection of Nanofluid in a Square Cavity Including a Square Heater

This paper reports a numerical study of natural convection of nanofluid (Cuwater) in a square cavity with a centrally-placed heated block. The transport equations were solved using the finite volume discretization method with SIMPLE algorithm. The method used is validated against previous works. Results were presented in terms of streamlines, isotherms, and Nusselt number for different sizes of the heater. The other parameters governing the problem are the Rayleigh number ( - -) the Prandtl number of the pure water ( =. ) and the volume fraction of nanoparticles ( - -. ). The investigation revealed that increased the surface area of heater has enhanced the heat transfer. Moreover, it is found that at higher Rayleigh number, there is an optimum value of volume fraction of nanoparticles which result in the highest rate of heat transfer.