Study of heat transfer augmentation in a differentially heated square cavity using copper–water nanofluid

Effect of copper–water nanofluid as a cooling medium has been studied to simulate the behavior of heat transfer due to laminar natural convection in a differentially heated square cavity. The transport equations for a non-Newtonian fluid have been solved numerically following finite volume approach using SIMPLER algorithm. The shear stresses have calculated using Ostwald–de Waele model for an incompressible non-Newtonian fluid. The thermal conductivity of the nanofluid has been calculated from the proposed model by Patel et al. Study has been conducted for Rayleigh number (Ra) 104 to 107 while solid volume fraction (ϕ) of copper particles in water varied from 0.05% to 5%. It has been observed that the heat transfer decreases with increase in ϕ for a particular Ra, while it increases with Ra for a particular ϕ. The copper nanoparticle diameter has been taken as 100 nm for all of the studies.