Copyright © 2023 by American Scientific Publishers Journal of Nanofluids

All rights reserved. Vol. 12, pp. 687–698, 2023

Printed in the United States of America (www.aspbs.com/jon)

Effect of Cavity Undulations and Thermal Boundary

Conditions on Natural Convection and Entropy
Generation in CuO-Water/Al2 O3 -Water Nanofluid
Swastik Acharya
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology, Allahabad 211004, India

The present work reports natural convection and entropy generation inside the cavity (with a plane or undulated
wall) filled with CuO-Water or Al2 O3 -Water nanofluid. The results are produced considering the effect of Rayleigh
number, Darcy number, Hartmann number and volume fraction of nanofluid (). Heat transfer improves with
the mixing of nanoparticles only for the case of Da of 0.01 for all Ra. Various thermal boundary conditions
such as uniform, sinusoidally and linearly varying temperature have been imposed at the wavy hot wall. It is
found that the average surface Nu for the cavity with uniform temperature is more compared to sinusoidally or
linearly varying temperature. Nu for a cavity filled with Al2 O3 -Water nanofluid is slightly lower than the CuO-
Water nanofluid for all cases. Local Nu for the plane and undulated wall has been plotted, which shows that it
is maximum at the crest of the undulated wall. In addition to the heat transfer, entropy generation is determined

ARTICLE
against all the relevant parameters, which adds more value to the present work.

KEYWORDS: Natural Convection, Undulated Cavity, Entropy Generation, Nanofluid, Porous Media.
IP: 5.10.31.151 On: Wed, 15 Nov 2023 11:24:32
Copyright: American Scientific Publishers
1. INTRODUCTION Delivered by Ingenta
Convective flow in porous media has enormous appli-
Natural convection in nanofluids has been a challenging cations in the geothermal power plant, chemical engineer-
topic among several research groups. The use of nanofluid ing, petroleum, solar collector, drying processes. Hence,
favors the enhancement of effective thermal conductivity, many researchers have studied it thoroughly.10–12 Laurati
stability, homogeneity and larger surface-to-volume ratio and Prasad13 examined the Darcy-Forchheimer situations
for cooling. Moreover, nanoparticle seems not to be settled in a differentially heated porous cavity. They reported that
down in the base fluid due to their uniform distribution the porous medium could transport more energy than a
throughout the base fluid, making their application more saturated fluid when the porous media is highly perme-
significant in engineering practices. Several researchers1–4 able. Sheikholeslami and Shehzad14 used Kao-Kleinstreur-
reported increasing convective heat transfer with the addi- Li and Darcy models for MHD convection in nanofluid
tion of nanoparticles to the primary fluid. Ho et al.5 exper- filled in a semi-annulus porous media. They reported that
imentally investigated natural convection heat transfer in a the heat transfer reduces with an increase in Hartmann
3-D enclosure and reported that 18% of augmentation in number. Thermo-economic and entropy generation analy-
heat transfer occurs at a volume fraction of nanoparticles ses of MHD natural convection in a nanofluid-filled annu-
less than 0.1% at higher Ra. Some researchers6–8 stud- lar enclosure have been carried out by Tayebi et al.15 They
ied on natural convection of nanofluid inserting a heater investigated the cost of nanofluid against the enhance-
on the cavity wall and investigated the effect of the heat ment in the heat transfer rate. A numerical study based
source and Ra in augmenting the convection. Alagumalai on the control volume finite element method (CVFEM)
and Ghasemi9 studied the barriers to nanofluid commer- has been carried out by Chamkha et al.16 to solve the nat-
cialization in the market. They concluded that the envi- ural convection inside a cavity under thermal radiation.
ronmental consequences of nanofluids should be mitigated The impact of the shape of nanoparticles has also been
to enhance the market demand for nanofluids. In addition, analyzed.
researchers-industries collaboration is crucial to foster the Since many industrial applications deal with heat trans-
widespread use of nanofluids. fer quality, entropy generation analysis has become essen-
tial in current engineering practices. Entropy generation
Email: swastik.acharya8@gmail.com or exergy destruction analysis assesses the system’s ther-
Received: 9 February 2022 mal performance, which renders in increasing the sec-
Accepted: 3 April 2022 ond law efficiency of the system. Therefore, many experts

J. Nanofluids 2023, Vol. 12, No. 3 2169-432X/2023/12/687/012 doi:10.1166/jon.2023.1956 687

 Effect of Cavity Undulations and Thermal Boundary Conditions on Natural Convection and Entropy Generation Acharya

focused on the entropy generation analysis owing to the 2. PHYSICAL PROBLEM

heat transfer and fluid friction irreversibility induced in
a system.17–20 Bhardwaj and Dalal21 adopted a stream
function-vorticity approach to solving natural convection
in a right-angled triangular porous cavity. They concluded
that heat transfer and entropy generation are vital func-
tions of Da and heat transfer. Selimefendigil et al.22 and
Mahamoudi et al.23 numerically examined the entropy
generation considering the relevant input parameters (Ra
and Ha) in a trapezoidal cavity filled with CuO-water
nanofluid. Thermal and entropy analysis on natural con-
vection heat transfer in a porous cavity with two cylinders
have been conducted by Dogonchi et al.24 The effect of
the size of the cylinder on the temperature and velocity
contour has been illustrated.
Most studies have focused on the rectangular or square
cavity with a plane wall with uniform temperature. How-
ever, an enclosure having an undulated-wall with non-
uniform temperature has been frequently encountered
in many real-life applications. Morsli and Bendehina,25
Mahmud and Islam26 considered air in a cavity with way
walls and investigated the effect of waviness on heat trans-
fer. More studies considering the wavy walls could be
ARTICLE
Figure 1 shows a porous cavity filled with CuO-water or
Al2 O3 -water nanofluid. The hot wall has been imposed
with uniformly or linearly or sinusoidally varying temper-
atures and the cold wall is kept constant at TC . The left
and right walls are considered either to be flat or wavy.
The waviness of the wall follows the sinusoidal equation
as mentioned in Figure 1, where the number of undulations
N  = b − 1/2, which is varied from 0 to 5. The wavy
wall’s non-dimensional amplitude (A/L) has been fixed to
0.05 for all simulations. The maximum temperature at the
hot wall is TH . Ra, Da, Ha and  range from 104 to 106 ,
10−2 to 10−4 , 0 to 90 and 0 to 12%. Using all the rel-
evant input parameters, Nu and non-dimensional entropy
generation have been predicted and the physics have been
discussed thoroughly.
3. MATHEMATICAL MODELING
The mathematical modeling of governing equations is
done after taking several assumptions. Flow is consid-
ered to be Newtonian, incompressible, laminar, and steady.

Viscous dissipation effect has been neglected in the

found in the article of Esmaelipour and Abdollahzadeh,27 energy equation. Boussinsque approximation in the y-
Cho,28 Acharya and Dash,29 30 and Seyyedi et al.31 Dou- momentum equation is considered to govern natural con-
ble diffusive natural convection caused by temperature and vection. Nanoparticles are assumed to be spherical and
concentration gradients has beenIP: 5.10.31.151
solved On: by
numerically Wed, 15 Nov 2023
uniform 11:24:32
in shape. Thermo-physical properties of the trans-
Eshaghi et al.32 The effect of Ra, LewisCopyright: American
number and buoy- Scientific Publishers
port medium remain constant. Both fluid and nanoparticles
ancy ratio on Nu, Sherwood number and entropyDelivered
genera- byare
Ingenta
assumed to be at the same temperature and moved with
tion has been demonstrated. A baffle is placed inside the the same velocity. The inertia term in Darcy-Forchheimer’s
cavity and it is found that the baffle with an angle of neg- model has been neglected since the fluid is encountered
ative 600 has the best average Nu. with very low velocity in natural convection. The local
A few studies include the non-uniform temperature thermal equilibrium model has been applied, which con-
boundary condition at the wall.33–35 Basak et al.36 stud- siders both the fluid and solid phase are at the same local
ied the effect of different wall temperature boundary con-
temperature. High porosity and the unit thermal conduc-
ditions on the natural convection in a cavity filled with
tivity ratio (ratio of solid of porous media and fluid) have
porous media. They presented Nu as a function of Da and
been considered. It is assumed that the induced electric
Ra when the enclosure wall was imposed with sinusoidal
current does not distort the flow behavior inside the cav-
boundary conditions.
ity, so the flow would be affected solely by the external
With this background, it is concluded that the effect of
magnetic field.
various thermal boundary conditions (uniform or linear or
sinusoidal distribution of temperature) on the magnetohy-
drodynamic natural convection in CuO-water or Al2 O3 -
water nanofluid filled in a porous wavy cavity has not been
reported to date. Therefore, the present work discusses the
fundamental physics behind the interplay of all the com-
petitive parameters on the heat transfer as a function of
Ra, , Da, Ha. CuO-water or Al2 O3 -water nanofluid is
considered for the present calculation because of the high
effective thermal conductivity and market availability. We
considered CuO-water or Al2 O3 -water nanofluid for the
present calculation because of the high effective thermal
conductivity and market availability. Entropy generation
has been calculated against the input parameters. The key
results have been plotted and discussed using suitable vec- Fig. 1. A pictorial representation of a cavity with various thermal
tor plots and temperature contours. boundary conditions.

688 J. Nanofluids, 12, 687–698, 2023

Acharya Effect of Cavity Undulations and Thermal Boundary Conditions on Natural Convection and Entropy Generation

3.1. Nondimensionalization of the Governing Since the objective of the study is to find the surface
Equations Nussselt number, the local Nusselt number and average
Equation (1) shows non-dimensional variables (Eq. (1)) Nusselt number
 are calculated as −knf /kf  / n and
used for non-dimensionalization of the governing equation. −knf /kf   / ndl/L.
In order to solve Eqs. (3)–(6), we need to specify the
x y uL pL2 T − TC necessary boundary conditions as below:
x̄ =  ȳ =  ū=  p̄ =  =
L L f nf f 2 TH − TC At the walls, no-slip condition is set, i.e.,
(1)
ū = v̄ = 0 (7)
Pertinent non-dimensional physical parameters that mod-
ulate the fluid flow and heat transfer are also introduced, For thermal boundary conditions, we mention it sequen-
which have been written below: tially:
Hot wall X = 0:
g TH − TC  L3 Constant temperature condition:
Ra =  Pr = 
f f
2 =1 (8)
K fB L2
Da = 2  Ha = (2)
L f Linear distribution of temperature:

Ra is the Rayleigh number that governs the buoyancy-  = Y 0 ≤ Y ≤ 1 (9)

induced flow in the cavity. Prandtl number (Pr) is constant
for a particular nanofluid. Ha modulates the strength of the Sinusoidal distribution of temperature:
external magnetic field and Da takes care of the flow in
the porous cavity.  = sin Y   0 ≤ Y ≤ 1 (10)

ARTICLE
Using the above non-dimensional variables and non- Cold wall: (X = 1)
dimensional parameters as mentioned in Eqs. (1) and (2),
we yield the non-dimensional form of the governing equa-  = 0 0 ≤ Y ≤ 1 (11)
tions as Refs. [5, 21]: IP: 5.10.31.151 On: Wed, 15 Nov 2023 11:24:32
Continuity: Copyright: American Scientific walls (Y = 0) and (Y = 1):
AdiabaticPublishers
ū v̄ Delivered by Ingenta
Zero heat flux has been applied on adiabatic walls.
+ =0 (3)
x̄ ȳ

X-Momentum conservation: = 0 0 ≤ X ≤ 1 (12)
n
  
ū ū p̄ nf ū
ū + v̄ =− + 2 3.2. Non-Dimensional Form of Entropy Generation
x̄ ȳ x̄ nf f x̄ x̄
  Equations
ū v̄ nf 1 We also aim at calculating the entropy generation due to
+ + − ū
ȳ ȳ x̄ nf f Da heat transfer irreversibility, fluid friction and external mag-
 netic field. Here we write the non-dimensional form of
nf f
− Ha2 Pr ū (4) entropy generation equations after normalizing it using the
f nf
required non-dimensional parameters.
Y -Momentum conservation: Non-dimensional form of entropy generation equations:
   Using Eqs. (1) and (2), the non-dimensional equations
v̄ v̄ p̄ nf ū v̄ for entropy generations are written as:
ū + v̄ = − + +
x̄ ȳ ȳ nf f x̄ ȳ x̄     
   T0 2 L2 knf  2  2
v̄ nf 1  nf SHT = SHT /vol × = +
+ 2 − v̄ − Ra Pr kf T 2 kf x̄ ȳ
ȳ ȳ nf f Da nf f
(13)
×  − C  (5)
 T 2 L2
SFF = SFF /vol × 0
Energy:  2  kf T 2
   nf  2
      2
ū + v̄ = + 2 (6) ū2 +v̄2 ū 2 v̄
x̄ ȳ f x̄ 2 ȳ = + 2 +2 (14)
Da x̄ ȳ
The momentum equation has considered Boussinesq
approximation to capture the density variation in the   
ū v̄ 2
buoyancy-induced flow. Therefore, the temperature differ- + + 1−25
37 ȳ x̄
ence is restricted less than 1 K for qualitative analysis.

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 Effect of Cavity Undulations and Thermal Boundary Conditions on Natural Convection and Entropy Generation Acharya

2
where,  = T0 /kf f /LT is the irreversibility where,
coefficient that defines the relative importance of the vis-
CP nf = CP s + 1 −  CP f (21)
cous entropy generation to thermal entropy generation. It
is to be noted that in the present calculation, we fixed  to Effective electrical conductivity:
10−4 . The entropy generation due to the external magnetic Effective electrical conductivity for the nanofluid can be
field is written as: calculated as:
 
 T0 2 L2 nf 3  s/ f  − 1 
SH = SH /vol× = Ha2 ū2 (15)
kf T 2 nf = f 1 + (22)
f  s/ f  + 2 −  s/ f  − 1 
3.3. Calculation of Thermo-Physical Properties of
Nanofluid 4. NUMERICAL PROCEDURE
CuO-Water and Al2 O3 -Water nanofluid have been consid- In order to solve Eqs. (3)–(6), a number of cells are gen-
ered the transport media for heat transfer to solve the prob- erated in the computational domain. Volumetric integra-
lem. The effective properties of the nanofluid have been tion of the governing equations is done using the finite
calculated using the thermophysical properties of the water volume technique and discretized at each cell to obtain
and nanoparticles from Table I: a set of non-linear equations. The non-linear equations
Effective viscosity: The effective viscosity has been cal- are to be solved in multi-grid solver Fluent 15.041 to pre-
culated using Brinkman model,38 which many researchers dict the parameters of interest. Pressure-velocity coupling
have extensively used1 2 6 7 in recent days. has been achieved following SIMPLE algorithm.42 Since
the discretization method, convergence criteria and under
nf = (16) relaxation parameters are pretty standard, more details
1 − 25
regarding these could be found in the author’s previous
ARTICLE

where  represents the volume fraction of nanoparticles in work.29 43

the water.
Effective density: The effective density is written as 4.1. Grid Independence Test
follows: IP: 5.10.31.151 On: Wed, 15ForNov
the 2023 11:24:32
grid independence test, the average surface Nu
nf = s + 1 − Copyright:
f (17) Scientific Publishers
American has been tabulated as a function of the number of cells
and Delivered byinIngenta
X and Y direction in Table II. The grid size was final-
 nf =  s + 1 −   f (18) ized when the change in average surface Nu was less than
Effective thermal conductivity: 0.1%. A similar test has been conducted before reporting
Assuming the nanoparticles to be uniform with a spher- the final solution for other cases. Thus, we have considered
ical shape, hence putting the () sphericity equal to 1 and 200 × 200 cells in the cavity for the simulation.
n (empirical shape factor) = 3 in the Hamilton-Crosser
model,39 we get the final expression for effective ther- 4.2. Validation
mal conductivity. One of the greatest researchers Maxwell Natural convection heat transfer in a square cavity has
also proposed this expression and has been approached been solved and validated with the experimental data by
by many researchers3 6–8 to calculate the effective thermal Ho et al.5 in Figure 2(a). The data are taken for the case of
conductivity. water filled in a container named test cell 1. Then one adi-
abatic block is kept inside a cavity filled with CuO-water
knf ks + 2kf − 2 kf − ks
= (19) nanofluid and natural convection is solved by varying the
kf ks + 2kf +  kf − ks volume fraction of nanoparticles. The results are compared
and simultaneously effective thermal diffusivity could be with Mahmoodi and Sebdani4 which has been presented in
calculated as: Figure 2(b). An excellent agreement within a relative error
knf of 5% has been found for both cases.
nf = (20)
CP nf We also validated natural convection heat transfer in
porous media with the previous articles of Lauriat and
Table I. Thermophysical properties of water and nanoparticles used in
the present simulation.40 Table II. Variation of Nusselt number with number of cells.
Properties Water Al2 O3 CuO Ra = 106 , Da = 0.01, Ha = 0, N = 0,  = 0
Cp (J/Kg · K) 4179 765 383 Number of cells Nu % Change
 (Kg/m3 ) 998 3600 8954
k (W/m · K) 0.613 46 400 160 × 160 89295 –
× 10−5 (1/K) 21 0.63 1.67 180 × 180 89205 01007
(W/m · K) 0.05 3.77 × 107 5.97 × 107 200 × 200 89137 00762

690 J. Nanofluids, 12, 687–698, 2023

Acharya Effect of Cavity Undulations and Thermal Boundary Conditions on Natural Convection and Entropy Generation

Fig. 2. Validation of Nusselt number with Ho et al.5 and Mahmoodi and Sebdani.4

Table III. Validation of Nu of the hot wall for natural convection heat Figure 4 shows the thermal distribution of temperature
transfer in a differentially heated porous cavity with a plane wall. inside the cavity with uniformly, sinusoidally and linearly
Nu Variation Variation with
varying temperatures at the hot wall. Figures 4(a)–(c) show
(Lauriat Nu with Lauriat [Bhardwaj the distribution for a plane wall, whereas Figures 4(d)–
and (Bhardwaj Nu (Present and Prasad and Dalal] in (f) show the distribution for an undulated-wall (N = 3).
Cases Da Ra Prasad) and Dalal) simulation) in % %
For linearly varying temperature conditions (Figs. 4(c and
1 10−2 103 1.02 1.02 1.0249 0.4 0.4 f)), the temperature gradient is very low at the bottom
104 1.70 1.73 1.6904 0.5 2
105 4.16 4.30 4.1606 0.014 3
of the wall. It gradually increases towards the top of the

2 10−4
105
1.06 1.08 1.0865 0.6 0.6
106 2.84 2.95 2.8925 1 1.9
Prasad13 and Bhardwaj and Dalal.21IP: A 5.10.31.151
maximum deviationOn: Wed, 15 Nov 2023 11:24:32
of 3% from the published data has beenCopyright: American
noticed (Table
Delivered bymiddle
5. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The present section assesses the heat transfer associated
with the buoyancy-induced flow in a porous cavity filled
with CuO-water or Al2 O3 -water nanofluid. The influence
of the external magnetic field has also been investigated.
We tried to elucidate the underlying flow physics and heat
transfer with the help of requisite plots of Nusselt number
or entropy generation, isotherms, or contours.
5.1. Variation of Nu with Da for with Uniform or
Sinusoidal or Linear Temperature Distribution at
Wall
Figure 3 depicts the variation of Nu as a function of Da for
a cavity with the plane (N = 0) or undulated (N = 3) wall
with uniform or sinusoidal or linear distribution of temper-
ature. Nu increases with Da because the cavity has a higher
permeability for the flow circulation at a higher Da. Nu
for the linear temperature distribution at the wall is lower
than sinusoidal or uniform distribution in all cases. Sim-
ilarly, Nu for a sinusoidally varying temperature is lower
than that of uniform distribution for all cases. Though the
magnitude of Nu is different for different boundary condi-
tions at wall, the trend of variation of Nusselt number with
respect Da is almost similar for all cases. A detailed anal-
ysis in a cavity with various thermal boundary conditions
has been performed below with temperature contours.
ARTICLE
wall. Concerning a sinusoidally varying temperature case
(Figs. 4(b and e)), only some portion adjacent to the mid-
dle of the hot wall is at a higher temperature. In contrast,
other parts remain at a low temperature close to TC . There-
fore, maximum heat transfer occurs in the region near the
III). Scientificportion
Publishers
Ingenta of the hot wall. The heat transfer is either
very low or negative for the remaining parts of the wall,
which signifies that the heat transfer reverses the direction
and takes place from the surrounding fluid to the wall as
the wall acts as a sink. However, for a uniform wall tem-
perature case (Fig. a, d), the whole wall remains heated at
a constant temperature of TH and the heat transfer takes
place from the hot wall to the surrounding fluid.
Figure 5 shows local Nu variation at the hot wall with
three types of boundary conditions for a plane cavity (N =
0). If we observe the case of linearly varying temperature
in Figure 5, at Y = 0, the local Nu is negative, which indi-
cates that the wall acts as a heat sink and heat transfer
takes place from surrounding fluid to the wall. As we move
along the wall from bottom to top, Nu keeps increasing up
to some point of Y (Y = 0.8) and then it decreases with
further increase in Y up to 1 (top of the wall), indicat-
ing a lower heat transfer at the top of the wall. When we
focus on the sinusoidal case, only the region bounded by
005 < Y < 007, the local Nusselt number is positive, sig-
nifying a positive heat transfer from the wall to the fluid.
However, for other parts, the wall is surrounded by hot
fluid and heat transfer occurs from fluid to the wall. If we
observe minutely, at Y = 0.4, Nu for a sinusoidal distribu-
tion case is more than the other two cases. For a sinusoidal
distribution, the cold fluid gets heated sinusoidally from
the bottom to the middle and rises upwards due to low-
ering the density. When it reaches the middle of the hot

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 Effect of Cavity Undulations and Thermal Boundary Conditions on Natural Convection and Entropy Generation Acharya
ARTICLE

Fig. 3. Variation of Nu as a function of Da for uniform, sinusoidal and linear temperature distribution at a undulated (N = 0) or plane wall (N = 3)
at (a) Ra = 106 , Ha = 0, (b) Ra = 106 , Ha IP:
= 90, (c) Ra = 105 , Ha
5.10.31.151
Copyright: American Scientific Publishers
wall, the fluid surrounding the hot wall is still atDelivered
a very bywall
low temperature and has more capacity to take heat away
from the wall. Such a phenomenon does not happen in
the case of a uniform or linear distribution. Therefore, the
local Nu at the middle of the wall for the sinusoidal dis-
tribution case is higher than in other cases. Since the local
Nu for sinusoidal distribution remains negative for most of
the wall, while averaging the local Nu over the hot surface,
the average surface Nu for a uniform temperature case is
higher than that of sinusoidal cases, which can be seen in
Figure 3. Similarly, for a linear distribution, the local Nu
remains very low at most of the wall, resulting in a lower
average surface Nu than the uniform case.
Figure 6 shows the velocity contour and streamline plot
for various thermal boundary conditions at the hot wall. It
can be seen that for all cases, the velocity is higher at the
near-wall region compared to the core region. The same
could be visualized from the streamline plot as the stream-
lines are densely packed streamlines near the hot wall. For
the uniform case, the velocity is symmetric in the cavity.
However, asymmetric flow is observed in sinusoidal and
linear boundary conditions. In sinusoidal conditions, the
fluid velocity is higher near the middle of the hot wall.
Since the temperature is minimum at the top of the hot
wall, the stagnation in the fluid is noticed, resulting in an
anticlockwise vortex at the corner region. The fluid in this
vortex remains at a lower temperature since the tempera-
ture at the top of the hot wall is minimum (same as cold
= 0,Wed,
On: = 10
(d) Ra15 5
Nov = 90. 11:24:32
, Ha2023
Ingenta
temperature). Therefore, heat transfer from the sur-
rounding hot fluid to this cold vortex results in a negative
Nu (Fig. 5). For the linear case, it is seen that there is a
stronger flow circulation near the cold wall. The primary
vortices in the core region move toward the cold wall.
Among all the cases, the velocity is found to be maxi-
mum at 220 near the hot wall for the uniform temperature.
The fluid gets heated from bottom to top for the uniform
wall, creating a temperature gradient throughout the wall.
Thus, fluid circulation is observed from bottom to top of
the wall.
5.2. Variation of Nusselt Number as a Function of
Volume Fraction of Nanoparticles
Figure 7 shows the variation of Nu with  for CuO-
water or Al2 O3 -water nanofluid. With an increase in ,
the calculations show that the effective thermal expan-
sion coefficient decreases and at the same time, the effec-
tive thermal conductivity increases. It is to be noted that
the ratio of effective viscosity and effective density in
the Darcy term of momentum equations (Eqs. (4) and
(5)) has a very negligible effect on the flow field as
both properties vary in almost the same rate against 
(can be inferred from Table I). Therefore, we would not
consider the variation of the ratio of effective viscosity
and effective density with respect to  while analyzing
the heat transfer. For a Ra of 106 or 105 , Ha = 0 and
Da of 0.01 (Figs. 6(a and g)), Nusselt number increases

692 J. Nanofluids, 12, 687–698, 2023

Acharya Effect of Cavity Undulations and Thermal Boundary Conditions on Natural Convection and Entropy Generation

ARTICLE
IP: 5.10.31.151 On: Wed, 15 Nov 2023 11:24:32
Copyright: American Scientific Publishers
Delivered by Ingenta
Fig. 4. Temperature contour for a plane (a–c) and undulated cavity (d–f) with uniform (a, d), sinusoidal (b, e) and linear (c, f) distribution of
temperature at hot wall for Da of 0.01 at a Ra of 106 , Ha = 0 and  = 0.

with  for plane and undulated cavity. The buoyancy-
induced flow dominates over the Darcy resistive force for
a higher Ra and high Da of 0.01 (high permeability).
When  increases, though the effective thermal expan-
sion coefficient of the nanofluid decreases (consequently
buoyancy force decreases), an insignificant change in the
flow field is observed. Such a phenomenon could be visu-
alized in Figure 8(a). Therefore, in such a scenario, the
effective thermal conductivity plays a dominant role in
enhancing the Nu with respect to , which can be seen
Fig. 5. Local Nusselt number distribution at the hot wall with both uni-
form, sinusoidally and linearly varying temperature for Da = 0.01 at Ra
of 106 , N = 0 and Ha = 0.
from (Figs. 7(a and g)). For a higher Ra of 106 , when
Da decreases to 0.0005 or 0.0001 (Figs. 7(b–f)), Darcy
resistive force becomes the same order as that of the buoy-
ancy force which results in a substantial reduction in the
net induced flow inside the cavity. In such a situation, the
reduction of thermal expansion coefficient with  is felt in
the flow field, reducing its strength. Even the improvement
of the effective thermal conductivity with  is not suffi-
cient to enhance the Nu against  (Figs. 7(b–f)). When
Ra reduces to 105 with a lower Da of 0.0005 or 0.0001
(Figs. 7(h–l)), Darcy resistive force becomes much higher
than the buoyancy force. Therefore, the convective flow
reduces drastically and the conduction mode of heat trans-
fer activates. In this situation, effective thermal conductiv-
ity plays a crucial role in enhancing the Nu with respect
to . It is to be mentioned that the variation of Nus-
selt number with respect to  follows a similar trend for
both CuO-water and Al2 O3 -water nanofluid. Since Al2 O3
nanoparticles have low thermal conductivity and low den-
sity as compared to CuO nanoparticles, the Nusselt num-
ber for an Al2 O3 -water nanofluid is marginally lower than
that of CuO-water nanofluid for all cases. The difference
is more significant at a higher Ra of 106 and lower Da of
0.0001 when the volume fraction of nanoparticles is high

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 Effect of Cavity Undulations and Thermal Boundary Conditions on Natural Convection and Entropy Generation Acharya

(a) (b) (c)

ARTICLE

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Copyright: American Scientific Publishers
Delivered by Ingenta

(d) (e) (f)

Fig. 6. Velocity contour and streamline plot for (a, d) Uniform temperature, (b, e) Sinusoidal temperature and (c, f) Linear temperature at hot wall.

at 0.12. It is also noticed that Nu for an undulated wall
is less than that of the plane wall. The reason behind this
could be explained by visualizing the local Nu variation
along the hot wavy wall.29 30
Figure 8 shows the isotherms for pure fluid and
nanofluid (CuO-Water and Al2 O3 -Water) of  = 0.12 for
different cases of Da of 0.01 and 0.0001 at a Ra of
106 . The cases represented here can be inferred from
Figures 7(a) and (c). For a high Da of 0.01, there is a
very minute difference between the isotherms of water
and nanofluid, which indicates that the flow field remains
unchanged with respect to . However, when Da decreases
to 0.0001, there exists a noticeable difference between
the water and nanofluid. If we compare for Da of 0.01
and 0.0001, for the case high Da (high permeability), the
isotherms are closer to the vertical wall as compared to
the case of low Da of 0.0001, which indicates the tem-
perature gradient to be higher for a high Da and hence
Nu. When the isotherms are compared between pure water
and nanofluid at a lower Da of 0.0001 (Fig. 8(b)) at the
left lower corner (X = 0 and Y = 0) or right upper corner
cavity (X = 1 and Y = 1), the isotherms for water ( = 0)
are closer to the wall as compared to the cases of CuO-
Water and Al2 O3 -Water ( = 0.12) nanofluid. Such a phe-
nomenon signifies a better circulation of net induced flow
of water than nanofluid. Therefore, though a nanofluid of
 = 0.12 has a high effective thermal conductivity, it is not
enough to increase the Nu over the pure fluid, as shown
in Figure 7(c). When we compare the isotherms between
CuO-Water and Al2 O3 -Water of ; = 0.12 at Da of 0.0001
(Fig. 8(b)), the isotherms of the Al2 O3 -Water nanofluid
is slightly more away from the hot or cold vertical wall
than that of the CuO-Water nanofluid, which results in a
slightly lower Nu for the Al2 O3 -Water case. (can be seen
in Fig. 7(c)).
5.3. Effect of Various Thermal Boundary Conditions
on Entropy Generation in Various Nanofluids
Figure 9 shows the variation of SHT and SFF for CuO-water
and Al2 O3 -Water nanofluid in a cavity with a uniform,

694 J. Nanofluids, 12, 687–698, 2023

Acharya Effect of Cavity Undulations and Thermal Boundary Conditions on Natural Convection and Entropy Generation

ARTICLE
IP: 5.10.31.151 On: Wed, 15 Nov 2023 11:24:32
Copyright: American Scientific Publishers
Delivered by Ingenta

Fig. 7. Variation of average surface Nusselt number as a function of volume fraction of nano particles () at Ra = 106 , Ha = 0 and (a) Da = 0.01,
(b) Da = 0.0005, (c) Da = 0.0001, Ra = 106 , Ha = 60 and (d) Da = 0.01, (e) Da = 0.0005, (f) Da = 0.0001, Ra = 105 , Ha = 0 and (g) Da = 0.01, (h)
Da = 0.0005, (i) Da = 0.0001, Ra = 105 , Ha = 60 and (j) Da = 0.01, (k) Da = 0.0005, (l) Da = 0.0001 for both plane (N = 3 , 5) and undulated cavity
(N = 0).

sinusoidal and linear distribution of temperature at the
hot wall. For all the cases, SHT and SFF for Al2 O3 -Water
nanofluid is marginally less than that of the CuO-water
nanofluid for a particular . For a specific , the effec-
tive density of a CuO-water nanofluid is slightly more than
that of the Al2 O3 -Water nanofluid. Therefore, the inertia of
the nanoparticles is more for a CuO-water nanofluid which
makes the flow velocity to be slightly more as compared
to the Al2 O3 -Water nanofluid. This phenomenon could be
clearly visualized from isotherms in Figure 8. Therefore,
SFF , which generally depends on the magnitude of the
velocity gradient, is slightly more for CuO-water nanofluid

J. Nanofluids, 12, 687–698, 2023 695

 Effect of Cavity Undulations and Thermal Boundary Conditions on Natural Convection and Entropy Generation Acharya

Fig. 8. Isotherms in a cavity with nanofluid (CuO-Water and Al2 O3 -Water) of  = 0 and 0.12 for (a) Da = 0.01 and (b) Da = 0.0001 at Ra = 106 .

as compared to the Al2 O3 -Water nanofluid (Figs. 9(c and by sinusoidal and linear distribution of temperature at the
d)). If we focus on SHT , effective thermal conductivity hot wall. If we revisit section 5.1 qualitatively, the same
comes into the picture. Since the effective thermal con- scenario is observed for the case of the average Nu. The
ARTICLE

ductivity of CuO-water nanofluid is slightly more than the variation of SHT with respect to  for Da of 0.01 and
Al2 O3 -Water nanofluid for a particular , SHT is found to 0.0001 is similar to the average surface Nusselt number
be more for a CuO-water nanofluid as compared to Al2 O3 - variation since both SHT and Nu explicitly depend on the
Water nanofluid for all cases. When we pay attention to temperature gradient at the wall. As far as SFF is con-
IP: 5.10.31.151
the various imposed boundary conditions, On:SWed, 15
the SHT and Nov S2023
cerned, 11:24:32
FF FF increases with an increase in  for Da of 0.01
Copyright: American Scientific Publishers
are more for the case of uniform temperature Delivered
followed bywhereas
Ingentadecreases with an increase in  for a lower Da

Fig. 9. Variation of SHT and SFF with respect to  for CuO-water and Al2 O3 -Water nanofluid in a cavity with uniform, sinusoidal and linear distribution
of temperature at hot wall for Da of 0.01 and 0.0001 at Ra = 106 and Ha = 0.

696 J. Nanofluids, 12, 687–698, 2023

Acharya Effect of Cavity Undulations and Thermal Boundary Conditions on Natural Convection and Entropy Generation

of 0.0001. SFF depends on the velocity gradient and effec- p̄ Non-dimensional pressure
tive viscosity of the nanofluid. If we refer to the isotherms Ra Rayleigh number

in Figures 9(a) and (b), the flow field remains almost the SHT /vol Entropy generation rate per unit volume due
same with respect to  for a high Da of 0.01. In such a to heat transfer (kg/sec3 · m · K)

situation, the effective viscosity plays an essential role in
SF F /vol Entropy generation rate per unit volume due
increasing the SFF with respect to , which can be seen
to heat transfer (kg/sec3 · m · K)
in Figure 9(c). But when Da is low at 0.0001, there is 
observed a noticeable reduction in strength of the flow SH /vol Entropy generation rate per unit volume due
field with respect to . Therefore, SFF , which implicitly to heat transfer (kg/sec3 · m · K)
depends on the strength of the flow field, decreases with SHT Non-dimensional entropy generation due to
an increase in , though the effective viscosity of the heat transfer
nanofluid increases with respect to . More about entropy SFF Non-dimensional entropy generation due to
generation against Da and Ha has been explored in the fluid friction
author’s work.29 30 SH Non-dimensional entropy generation due to
magnetic field
T Temperature (K)
6. CONCLUSIONS TH Hot temperature (K)
The plane or undulated cavity filled with CuO-water and TC Cold temperature (K)
Al2 O3 -water nanofluid with various thermal boundary con- u v Velocity (m/sec)
ditions has been solved for natural convection and entropy ū, v̄ Non-dimensional velocity
generation. Some key results have been plotted and dis- x y Cartesian coordinate (m)
cussed in a detailed manner. From the thorough discus- x̄, ȳ Non-dimensional Cartesian coordinate
sions of results, it is concluded that:

ARTICLE
• The average surface Nussselt number for a hot wall with Greek Symbol
uniform temperature is more compared to sinusoidally and
f Diffusivity of fluid (m2 /sec)
linearly varying temperatures.
nf effective diffusivity of nanofluid (m2 /sec)
• Nu is lower for an undulated wall IP:than a plane wall
5.10.31.151 On:for
Wed, 15 Nov Thermal
2023 11:24:32
f Publishers expansion coeffcient of fluid (K−1 )
all cases. Copyright: American Scientific
Viscosity of fluid (Pa secn )
• Nu for a cavity filled with Al2 O3 -Water nanofluid
Delivered
is by Ingenta
slightly lower than the CuO-Water nanofluid for all cases. nf Effective index of nanofluid

• Mixing nanoparticles to the primary fluid is the effective  Volume fraction of nanopartciles
way to enhance the heat transfer only for the case of Da  density of fluid (kg/m3)
of 0.01 and Ha of 0 for all Ra. nf Effective density of nanofluid (kg/m3)
• SHT and SFF increase with the addition of nanoparticles nf Effective electrical conductivity of nanofluid

at a high Da of 0.01 and the opposite behavior arises for (amp2 · sec2 /kg · m3)
f Electrical conductivity of fluid (amp · sec /kg ·
2 2
a low Da of 0.0001. 3
m)
s Electrical conductivity of nanoparticle (amp ·
2

NOMENCLATURE sec /kg · m )

2 3

A Non-dimensional amplitude of wavy wall  Non-dimensional temperature

B Externally applied magnetic field (kg/sec · 2

amp) References and Notes

Cp Specific heat capacity of fluid (J/kg · K)
Da Darcy number
g Acceleration due to gravity (m/sec2 )
Ha Hartmann number
K Permeability of the cavity (m2 )
knf Effective thermal conductivity (W/m · K)
kf Thermal conductivity of fluid (W/m · K)
ks Thermal conductivity of nano particles
(W/m · K)
L Characteristic length (m)
N Number of undulations of wavy wall
Nu Average surface Nusselt number at hot wall
Pr Prandtl number
p Pressure (N/m2 )
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