Finite element analysis of double-diffusive natural convection in a porous triangular enclosure filled with Al2O3 -water nanofluid in presence of heat generation.

ABSTRACT

The problem of double-diffusive natural convection of Al2O3 -water nanofluid in a porous triangular enclosure in presence of heat generation has been studied numerically in this paper. The bottom wall of the cavity is heated isothermally, the left inclined wall is non-isothermal and the right inclined wall is considered to be cold. The concentration is higher at bottom wall, lower at right inclined wall and non-isoconcentration at left inclined wall of the cavity. The governing equations are transformed to the dimensionless form and solved numerically using Galerkin weighted residual technique of finite element method. The results are obtained in terms of streamlines, isotherms, isoconcentrations, average Nueeslt number (Nu) and average Sherwood number (Sh) for the parameters thermal Rayleigh number (RaT ), dimensionless heat generation parameter (λ), solid volume fraction (ϕ) and Lewis number (Le) while Prandtl number (Pr), Buoyancy ratio (N) and Darcy number (Da) are considered to be fixed. It is observed that flow pattern, temperature fields and concentration fields are affected by the variation of above considered parameters.