Effect of ferro nanofluids on mixed convection in an open cavity with phase change material

Abstract

Numerical analysis of mixed convection flow in an open channel cavity was performed by placing PCM and using ferro nanofluids (water based Fe3O4 nanofluid) with different volume fractions (1.0%, 3.0% and 5.0%) as working fluids. The effect of different Richardson numbers under laminar flow conditions with constant Reynolds number was analyzed to reveal how the nanofluid volume fraction and PCM position in the cavity affect the flow and heat transfer characteristics. The main reason for considering the use of nanofluid as a working fluid with the PCM layer is the thermal control of the cavity. It has been determined that the use of ferro nanofluids has a positive effect on the thermal control of the flow by increasing the thermal energy storage capacity of the PCM. As the Ri number increased, the importance of mixed convection effects increased, and for the highest Ri number, natural convection played a dominant role, causing a 65.5% decrease in the heated wall dimensionless temperature. Since the heat flux applied for pure water at highest Ri number is one third of that applied for 5.0% nanofluid, the specified temperature increase is quite lower by comparing heat flux thanks to the nanofluid high convection capability. Different than pure water, in all PCM cases the rate of melting is higher for 5.0% ferro nanofluid due to the higher convective heat transfer. In the case of the PCM on the bottom wall, the highest thermal energy storage capacity was obtained for each working fluid and 50% more energy was stored compared to the right heated wall at the same Ri number. Moreover, the maximum average Nu number was determined for the bottom heated case and for the same Ri number at 5.0% ferro nanofluid which was obtained approximately twice as much as pure water when flow reached steady state.