Computational Modeling of Natural Convection in Nanofluid-Saturated Porous Media: An Investigation into Heat Transfer Phenomena

A numerical study was carried out to analyze the phenomenon of natural convection in a porous medium saturated with nanofluid. In the study, the boundary element method was used for computational modeling. The fluid flow through a porous matrix is described using the Darcy–Brinkman–Forchheimer momentum equation. In addition, a mathematical model for nanofluids was used, which follows a single-phase approach and assumes that the nanoparticles within a fluid can be treated as an independent fluid with effective properties. A combination of single- and sub-domain boundary element methods was used to solve the relevant set of partial differential equations. The method was originally developed for pure flow scenarios, but also proves to be effective in the context of fluid flow through porous media. The results are calculated for the case of two- and three-dimensional square cavities. In addition to various values of dimensionless control parameters, including the porous Rayleigh number (Rap), Darcy number (Da), porosity (ϕ) and nanoparticle volume fractions (φ), the effects of the inclination angle of the cavity on the overall heat transfer (expressed by the Nusselt number (Nu)) and fluid flow characteristics were investigated. The results indicate a pronounced dependence of the overall heat transfer on the introduction of nanoparticles and inclination angle. The heat transfer in a two-dimensional cavity is increased for higher values of Darcy number in the conduction flow regime, while it is suppressed for lower values of Darcy number in the Darcy flow regime. In the case of a three-dimensional cavity, increasing the volume fraction of nanoparticles leads to a decrease in heat transfer, and furthermore, increasing the inclination angle of the cavity considerably weakens the buoyancy flow.