Heat Transfer Enhancement of Al2O3–H2O Nanofluid Free Convection in Two-Phase Flow with Internal Heat Generation Using Two Dimensional Lattice Boltzmann Method

A two-phase lattice Boltzmann model considering the interaction forces of nanofluid has been developed in this paper. It is applied to investigate the flow and natural convection heat transfer of Al2O3–H2O nanofluid in an enclosure containing internal heat generation. To understand the heat transfer enhancement mechanism of the nanofluid flow from the particle level, the lattice Boltzmann method is used because of its mesoscopic feature and numerical advantages. By using a two-component lattice Boltzmann model, the heat transfer enhancement of the nanofluid is analyzed through incorporating the different forces acting on the nanoparticles and the base fluid . The effects of interaction forces, nanoparticle volume fractions (0.0-0.05), and internal and external Rayleigh numbers (103-106) on the nanoparticle distributions and heat transfer characteristics are investigated. The average Nusselt number increases with the increase of nanoparticle volume fraction and Rayleigh number. We also compared and analyzed adding internal heat generation on the nanoparticles and the base fluid separately, and it was found that by considering heat generation on the base fluid, it mostly affects the temperature field, and by considering that on nanoparticles, it mostly affects the stream field.