Investigation of Adding Cu Particles to Base Fluid on Mixed Convection Heat Transfer in a Ventilated Square Cavity

In this paper the effect of adding nanoparticle (Cu) to base fluid (water) on the mixed convection heat transfer in a ventilated square cavity has been numerically investigated. The upper wall of presented cavity is located at constant temperature and the bottom wall is located at constant heat flux. The right and left walls are adiabatic. An external flow entering to the cavity from a port in the left vertical wall and leaving from a port at the right vertical wall. The governing equations were discretized by a finite volume method and solved with SIMPLE algorithm. In this article, the effects of two parameters consist of the Richardson number and the volume fraction of Cu particle on the fluid flow and heat transfer rate, have been examined. The obtained results showed that the heat transfer rate increases with an increase of the volume fraction of Cu particle.