Thermo-Convective Flows of Mono- and Hybrid-Nanofluids Over Horizontal Undulated Surfaces in a Porous Medium

Abstract

This paper presents a comparative study between the thermo-convective flows of two mono- and one hybrid-nanofluid over three uniformly heated undulated surfaces (described by sinusoidal, sawtooth or triangular waveforms) embedded in a porous medium. The base fluid for each nanofluid is water, and the nanoparticles are copper, alumina or a copper-alumina mixture. Two different types of materials of the porous medium have been considered: aluminum foam and glass balls. This problem is governed by a system of nonlinear, coupled partial differential equations, which is solved using the Keller-Box method. The influences of each porous medium and the pertinent parameters on the nanofluid flows and heat transfer have been explored. It is seen that secondary flow occurs at large amplitudes of the surface undulations for the sinusoidal and triangular waveforms, but no such flow is observed in the case of the sawtooth waveform and the flat surface. To assess the heat transfer properties, the mean Nusselt number has been calculated. It is observed that the mean Nusselt number is higher in the porous medium of glass balls than aluminum foam. The heat transfer on the undulated surfaces is the highest in the case of a hybrid-nanofluid and the least for water-alumina.