Numerical Study of Natural Convection in a Square Cavity Filled with a Porous Medium Saturated with Nanofluid

Steady state natural convection of al2o3-water nanofluid inside a square cavity filled with a porous medium isinvestigated numerically. the temperatures of the two side walls of the cavity are maintained at th and tc,where tc has been considered as the reference condition. the top and the bottom horizontal walls have beenconsidered to be insulated i.e., non-conducting and impermeable to mass transfer. darcy–forchheimer model isused to simulate the momentum transfer in the porous medium. the transport equations are solved numericallywith finite volume approach using simpler algorithm. the numerical procedure is adopted in the present studyyields consistent performance over a wide range of parameters (rayleigh number, ra, 104? ra? 106, darcynumber, da, 10-5? da ? 10-3, and solid volume fraction, ?,?0.0 ? ? ? 0.1). numerical results are presented interms of streamlines, isotherms and average nusselt number. it was found that heat transfer increases withincreasing of both rayleigh number and darcy number. it is further observed that the heat transfer in the cavityis improved with the increasing of solid volume fraction parameter of nanofluids.