Eur. Phys. J. Plus (2017) 132: 55
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/i2017-11330-3

Regular Article

CuO-water nanofluid free convection in a porous cavity considering Darcy law

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Babol University of Technology, Babol, Iran

^* e-mail: m_sh_3750@yahoo.com

Received: 26 November 2016
Accepted: 3 January 2017
Published online: 30 January 2017

Abstract

The natural convection of a CuO-water nanofluid in a permeable cavity is simulated using the Darcy law. The Brownian motion impact on the properties of the nanofluid is taken into account using the KKL model. The effect of Lorentz forces on the nanofluid hydrothermal behavior are considered. The control volume based finite element method is applied to solve the final equations. Roles of CuO-water volume fraction (), Rayleigh (Ra) and Hartmann (Ha) numbers for a porous medium are reported. Results show that the Nusselt number decreases with increasing Ha but it increases with increasing , Ra.