Use of nanofluids for enhanced natural cooling of discretely heated enclosures

Natural convection heat transfer from discrete heat sources to nanofluids is of great importance because of its application in the cooling of electronic components. The presence of the nanoparticles in the fluids increases appreciably the effective thermal conductivity of the fluid and consequently enhances the heat transfer characteristics. The present study is aimed to investigate numerically the natural convection heat transfer from discrete heat sources to nanofluids. The behavior of nanofluids was investigated numerically inside a heated cavity to gain insight into convective recirculation and flow processes induced by a nanofluid. A computational model was developed to analyze heat transfer performance of nanofluids inside a cavity taking into account the solid particle dispersion. The model was validated through the comparison with available experimental data. The results showed good agreement. The influence of the solid volume fraction on the flow pattern and heat transfer inside the cavity was investigated. The results show that the intensity of the streamlines increases with the volume fraction. It is also indicated that higher velocities along the centerline of the enclosure are achieved as the volume of nanoparticles increases. The influence of the loading factor is more distinguished at the upper heaters and in particular at the highest heater. The heat transfer increases as the volume fraction of the nanoparticles increases from 2 to 10%.