Galerkin finite element analysis for buoyancy driven copper-water nanofluid flow and heat transfer through fins enclosed inside a horizontal annulus: Applications to thermal engineering

The hydrothermal significance of natural convection flow through the horizontal annulus reveal most important implication and those geometrical shapes are introduced in enormous industrial and engineering implementations related to superheaters, heat exchangers, hydrogen fuel cells, gas turbines, solar collectors, vehicle engines, and turbomachinery etc. With this motivation, the current advance study enlightens the natural convection heat transfer impacts of Cu - water nanofluid flow through horizontal annulus with inserting Fins at the inner cylinder. Different fins numbers (0, 2 and 4) are inserted at inner cylinder wall are heated. The outer cylinder kept at cooled temperature. The significance nanoparticles fraction (phi = 1% - 5%), Rayleigh number (1000,10000 and 100000) and different fin numbers (0, 2 and 4) on fluid flow, thermal field, and local Nusselt number investigated. The Galerkin finite element method has been employed to carry out the numerical solution for different values of flow controlling parameters. The impacts of prominent parameter on streamlines, isotherms and 2d graphs are analyzed. The analysis concluded that velocity and thermal outcomes upsurges for Rayleigh number. It is conclude that important thermal transfer increment can be observed due to the occurrence of solid nanoparticles and that is boosted by growing the solid particle fraction. The velocity is reduced by increasing the values of nanoparticle volume fraction. Additionally larger heat transfer for nanoparticles Volume fraction phi = 5% as compare to phi = 1%.