The heat and mass transfer characteristics of a micropolar nanofluid-filled cubic cavity are investigated with different types of nanoparticles (Al2O3, TiO2, Cu and Ag). Pure water is assumed as the base fluid. The governing equations are simplified by means of vorticity-vector potential formulation and subsequently solved numerically using the finite volume method. The influences of relevant parameters on heat and mass transfer characteristics are well explored and the results show that for the micropolar nanofluid model both heat and mass transfer rates and the three-dimensional character of the flow are smaller compared with that of a pure nanofluid model. It is also found that the rate of heat and mass transfer decreases with an increase in vortex viscosity parameters as well as volume fractions. The enhancement in the volume fraction of nanoparticles weakens both flow strength and three-dimensional nature of the flow, which are more prominent in the thermal buoyancy dominated flow. The average Nusselt and Sherwood numbers decrease with the increase in the volume fraction of nanoparticles resulting in a significant enhancement in thermal properties of nanofluids with elevated heat and mass transport features. The effects of type of nanoparticles on the rate of heat and mass transfer and flow structure are analyzed.
In this article, a numerical study was conducted to analyze the effect of electro-convection and electro-thermo-convection in a solar chimney geometry subjected to the simultaneous action of an electric field and a thermal gradient (in the case of electro-thermo-convection).The full set of equations is solved using the finite element software COMSOL Multiphysics.The effects of thermal and electric Rayleigh numbers on charge density distribution, fluid flow and temperature distribution are analyzed.Also the impact of different chimney collector widths is studied in order to determine the optimum width allowing achieving the maximum fluid velocity.It was shown that using a smaller chimney collector width is more convenient in order to increase the fluid flow velocity.In addition, an evaluation of the heat transfer enhancement was made by observing the evolution of heat flow at the exit of the chimney tower as a function of both, the electric and thermal Rayleigh numbers.It was found that the heat transfer enhancement reaches more than 90 % when thermal Rayleigh rises from 5000 to 20000.Finally, the effect of Prandtl number was investigated.
The objectives of the present research work are the three-dimensional computational analysis and predictions on double-diffusive natural convection in a cubic cavity filled with Cu–Al2O3/water micropolar hybrid nanofluid. The governing equations are carefully modified employing vorticity–vector potential formulation and are solved by the finite volume method. Performance enhancement of Cu–Al2O3/water micropolar hybrid nanofluid is judiciously compared with the Cu/water simple nanofluid. Besides, the influences of concentration of nanoparticles, Rayleigh number, buoyancy ratio, and micropolar vortex parameter on the flow field and heat transfer are critically analyzed. The results show that heat and mass transfer rates are lower for a micropolar nanofluid model when compared to the pure nanofluid model. The hybrid micropolar nanofluid displays more heat and mass transfer rates for thermal buoyancy-dominated zones when compared with traditional nanofluid. Conversely, the heat and mass transfer rates are decreased when using micropolar hybrid nanofluid for the solutal-dominated regime. The enhancement of micropolar viscosity parameter results in a decrease of average Nusselt and Sherwood numbers which are more perceptible in the thermal buoyancy-dominated flow.