Brownian motion of nanoparticles in a triangular enclosure with natural convection

This paper presents the results of a numerical study on the natural convection in a right triangular enclosure, with a heat source on its vertical wall and filled with a water-CuO nanofluid. The effects of parameters such as Rayleigh number, solid volume fraction, heat source location, enclosure aspect ratio and Brownian motion on the flow and temperature fields as well as the heat transfer rate, are examined. The results show that when Brownian motion is considered in the analysis, the solid volume fraction, the heat source location and the enclosure aspect ratio affect the heat transfer performance differently at low and high Rayleigh numbers. At high Rayleigh numbers, an optimum value for the solid volume fraction is found which results in the maximum heat transfer rate. This is in contradiction to the results of the analysis in which Brownian motion is neglected. (C) 2010 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.