Hybrid nanofluid flow in combined convective lid-driven sinusoidal triangular enclosure

Abstract

A numerical analysis has been carried out on combined magnetoconvection in a lid driven triangular enclosure with sinusoidal wavy bottom surface filled with hybrid nanofluid composed of equal quantities of Cu and Al2O3 nanoparticles dispersed in water-based fluid. The enclosure left vertical wall is heated while the inclined side of the cavity is cooled isothermally and the bottom wavy wall is insulated. A heat conducting horizontal circular cylinder has been placed at the middle of the enclosure. In this research, the relevant governing equations have been solved by using finite element method of Galerkin weighted residual approach. The implication of Richardson number and solid volume fraction of nanoparticles on the flow structure and heat transfer characteristics has been performed in details while the Reynolds number, Hartmann number and Prandtl number considered as fixed. Results have been presented in terms of streamlines, isotherms and average Nusselt number of the hybrid nanofluid for different values of governing parameters. The numerical results indicate that the Richardson number have significance effect on the flow and heat transfer performance. Moreover, it is noticed that combination of two different nanoparticles suspension has a better performance of heat transfer.