Modeling of Double Diffusive Buoyant Flow in a Solar Collector with Water-CuO Nanofluid

The behavior of a prism-shaped solar collector with a right triangular cross sectional area is investigated numerically. The water-CuO nanofluid is taken as the functioning liquid through the solar collector. The leading differential equations with boundary conditions are solved by the penalty finite element method using Galerkin's weighted residual scheme. The performance of parameters in terms of temperature, mass, velocity distributions, radiative, convective heat and mass transfer, mean temperature and concentration of nanofluid, mid height horizontal-vertical velocities, and sub-domain average velocity field are investigated systematically. These parameters include the Rayleigh number Ra and the solid volume fraction f. The outcome explains that the performance of the solar collector can be enhanced with the largest Ra and f. The code validation shows excellent concurrence with the hypothetical outcome obtainable in the literature. (C) 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.