Mixed convection in a partially heated triangular cavity filled with nanofluid having a partially flexible wall and internal heat generation

Abstract

Numerical study of mixed convection in a partially heated nanofluid-filled lid driven cavity with internal heat generation and having a partial flexible wall was performed. The bottom wall of the triangular enclosure is moving with constant speed and left vertical wall is partially heated. The inclined wall of the cavity is cooled and partially flexible. The governing equations are solved with Galerkin weighted residual finite element method. The effects of Richardson number (between 0.05 and 50), internal Rayleigh number (between 10(4) and 10(8)), size and elastic modulus of the partial flexible wall and nanoparticle volume fraction (between 0 and 0.04) on the fluid flow and heat transfer were numerically investigated. It was observed that the local and averaged heat transfer reduce as the value of the Richardson number and internal Rayleigh number increase. As the value of the elastic modulus of the inclined wall and nanoparticle volume fraction increase, local and average heat transfer enhance. The discrepancy between the averaged Nusselt number increase for different sizes for the lower values of elastic modulus of the flexible wall. When heat transfer process is effective adding nanoparticles to the base fluid is advantageous. (C) 2016 Taiwan Institute of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.