Numerical Study of Natural Convection in a Three-dimensional Cavity Filled with Nanofluids

Natural convection in a cubic cavity filled with nanofluids and discretely heated, is studied numerically using a threedimensional finite volume formulation. Two heating square portions are placed on the vertical wall of the enclosure, while the rest of the considered wall is adiabatic. These sections are heated with a constant uniform temperature TH while the opposite vertical wall is maintained at a cold uniform temperature TC. The other walls are adiabatic. The fluid flow and heat transfer in the cavity are studied for different sets of the governing parameters, namely the Rayleigh number 10 ≤ Ra ≤ 10, type of nanofluid copper (Cu), alumina (Al2O3) and titanium (TiO2) and volume fraction 0.0 ≤ Ф ≤ 0.2 The heating sections dimension E and the Prandtl number Pr are respectively fixed to 0.15 and 6.2 (water).