Numerical Analysis of Laminar Natural Convection in Rectangular Enclosures of Different Aspect Ratios with and Without Aerosol Nanofluid

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

11-15-2013

Publication Title

Proceedings of the ASME 2013 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition (IMECE 2013)

DOI

10.1115/IMECE2013-65056

Abstract

Natural convection heat transfer in rectangular enclosures is important in many real-world engineering applications. Included in these applications are the energy efficient design of buildings, operation and safety of nuclear reactors, solar collector design, passive energy storage, heat transfer across multi-pane windows, thermo-electric refrigeration and heating devices, and the design-for-mitigation of optical distortion in large-scale laser systems, environmental engineering and electronic packaging. A common industrial application of natural convection is free air cooling without the aid of fans and can happen on small scales such as computer chips to large scale process equipment. In addition to temperature gradient convection strength within the enclosure can vary due to the existence of nanoparticles with the base fluid.

The field of nanofluid research has been expanding in recent years. Most of the research performed for the purpose of heat transfer using nanofluids has been conducted on liquid based nanofluids, leaving the aerosol-based nanofluid research lagging. There is also a deficit in the research previously performed to develop a computer model of heat transfer enhancement using nanofluid. The transport of solid particles and liquid droplets in a fluid has long been a subject of great interest. Understanding, measuring, and quantifying the deposition of aerosol on walls is important in various sectors of science and technology. Some examples are the deposition of drugs and harmful substances in the nasal and respiratory tracts in medical science and engineering; deposition of particles and droplets in gas and steam turbines in power plant engineering; the atmospheric dispersal of pollutants and the determination of indoor air quality in environmental science; the transport and sedimentation of various substances in rivers in civil engineering; fouling of process and heat transfer equipments in process industries; and the transport of chemical aerosols in chemical process engineering. In this research work the case of pure air was first solved for 6 different aspect ratios, then the nanofluid was introduced and the resulting heat transfer was observed. The aerosol nanofluid used was composed of air with copper nanoparticles suspended in an enclosure. This procedure was repeated for multiple aspect ratios. This research also develops a functional computer model for heat transfer enhancement using nanofluid.

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