Nanofluid Natural Convection in a Triangular Enclosure with Blade Heater

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the nanofluid natural convection heat transfer in a triangular enclosure with a blade heater. The Cu-water nanofluid is used. Discretization of the governing equations are achieved through a finite volume method and solved with SIMPLER algorithm. The effects of Rayleigh number, the volume fraction of nanoparticles and the size and position of the blade on the heat transfer performance of the enclosure were examined. The results show that the heat transfer rate increases with increase in solid volume fraction and Rayleigh number. The heat transfer rate increases at low Rayleigh numbers when the blade approaches to the hypotenuse but it doesn’t show the same behavior at high Rayleigh numbers. Heat transfer rate increases with the increase of the blade length. The results also show that at high Rayleigh numbers mostly heat transfer rate in the vertical blade is more than the horizontal blade, but the vertical and horizontal situation of the heater at low Rayleigh numbers has a few effects on the heat transfer rate.