Masoud Mofarahi

Numerical analysis of the free convection heat transfer in an H-shaped cavity loaded with alumina–water nanofluid is performed in this work. The entire bottom wall of the H-shaped enclosure and the top rib are at the hot temperature, the two sidewalls are at the lower temperature, and the others are insulated. This study aims to elucidate the influences of different variables on the heat transfer of nanofluid, namely the Rayleigh number (Ra?=?104–106), nanoparticle volume fraction percentage (??=?0–2%), aspect ratio (AR?=?0.2–0.4), installation of baffle, location of baffle in the cavity, and the types of baffle boundary condition. To model the buoyancy force, the Boussinesq approximation is employed. The characteristics of flow and thermal transmission are presented in streamlines and isotherms. The results show that the heat transmission is improved by Rayleigh number enhancement and nanoparticle volume fraction due to the enhanced temperature gradient and the nanofluid thermal characteristics. In addition, the baffle installation at the bottom rib under a non-adiabatic boundary condition improve the heat transfer because the bottom wall has a larger mean temperature than the top wall.