Numerical Investigation of Free Convection Heat Transfer of Al2O3/water Nanofluid Under Constant Wall Temperature Condition

A. Zamanian a, M. Haghshenas Fard a*, S. Gh. Etemada, F. Mircharkhchian

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Department of Chemical Engineering, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan 84156-83111, Iran *Haghshenas@cc.iut.ac.ir

In this study Natural convection heat transfer of nanofluids in a vertical cylinder is studied using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis. The cylinder heated from below and cooled from top and the wall is under adiabatic condition. Single-phase model has been used for prediction of Nusselt number vs. Rayleigh number. The study has been carried out in a vertical cylinder for the Rayleigh number in the range of 108Ra109 and nanoparticle concentrations of 0.11.5% vol. The thermal conductivity and effective viscosity of nanofluid have been calculated by Maxwell and Brinkman models, respectively. The Nusselt number of Al2O3/Water nanofluid at different concentrations versus Rayleigh number measured and compared to the experimental data. It can be found that the heat transfer coefficient increases with increasing the Rayleigh number. Also it is clear that in the constant Rayleigh number, the Nusselt number increases with increasing the nanofluid volume fraction. At the Ra=1.0E+08, the Nusselt number of 0.1% nanofluid is 29% higher than pure water and at Ra =5E+08, with changing the nanoparticle volume fraction from 0.1% to 0.5%, the Nusselt number increases to 17%. Results of CFD predictions are in good agreement with the experimental data.

Keywords: Nanofluid, Natural Convection; CFD; Rayleigh number