International Journal of Thermal Sciences 57 (2012) 152e162

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International Journal of Thermal Sciences

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijts

Natural convection in nanofluids: Are the thermophoresis and Brownian motion

effects significant in nanofluid heat transfer enhancement?
Zoubida Haddad a, b, Eiyad Abu-Nada c, Hakan F. Oztop a, *, Amina Mataoui b
a
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Technology Faculty, Fırat University, TR-23119, Elazig, Turkey
b
Department of Fluid Mechanics, Faculty of Physics, University of Sciences and Technology-Houari Boumediene, Algiers, Algeria
c
Department of Mechanical Engineering, King Faisal University, Al-Ahsa 31982, Saudi Arabia

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Natural convection heat transfer and fluid flow of CuOeWater nanofluids is studied using the Rayleighe
Received 1 August 2011 Bénard problem. A two component non-homogenous equilibrium model is used for the nanofluid that
Received in revised form incorporates the effects of Brownian motion and thermophoresis. Variable thermal conductivity and
19 January 2012
variable viscosity are taken into account in this work. Finite volume method is used to solve governing
Accepted 20 January 2012
Available online 2 March 2012
equations. Results are presented by streamlines, isotherms, nanoparticle distribution, local and mean
Nusselt numbers and nanoparticle profiles at top and bottom side. Comparison of two cases as absence of
Brownian and thermophoresis effects and presence of Brownian and thermophoresis effects showed that
Keywords:
Natural convection
higher heat transfer is formed with the presence of Brownian and thermophoresis effect. In general, by
Brownian considering the role of thermophoresis and Brownian motion, an enhancement in heat transfer is
Thermophoresis observed at any volume fraction of nanoparticles. However, the enhancement is more pronounced at low
Nanofluid volume fraction of nanoparticles and the heat transfer decreases by increasing nanoparticle volume
fraction. On the other hand, by neglecting the role of thermophoresis and Brownian motion, deterio-
ration in heat transfer is observed and this deterioration elevates by increasing the volume fraction of
nanoparticles.
Ó 2012 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction configurations. Abu-Nada et al. [8] studied on natural convection in

Enhancement of thermal conductivity of liquids is an extremely
important topic from the energy efficiency point of view. The
latest technique on this challenging subject is the using of addition
of some particle into the base fluid. In this context, as Pioneer of
these methods, Masuda [1] reported the liquid dispersions of
submicron solid particles or nanoparticles, then, the term of
“nanofluid” was first proposed by Choi [2]. Nanofluid becomes
more attractive in recent years due to easy production methods
and inexpensive price. Also, thermal conductivity of nanofluids
relative to the base fluids is very high. Thus, nanofluids can be
applied in many energetical systems such as cooling of nuclear
systems, radiators, natural convection in enclosures. There are
some review papers that show applications and detail solutions on
nanofluids [3e5].
Number of experimental [6,7] and numerical studies on nano-
fluid is increased in recent years for different models and different
* Corresponding author. Tel.: þ90 424 237 0000x4222; fax: þ90 424 236 7064.
E-mail addresses: hfoztop1@gmail.com, hfoztop1@yahoo.com (H.F. Oztop).
horizontal annuli using different types of water based-nanofluids.
They observed that addition of nanoparticles into base fluid
enhances the heat transfer. Mahmoodi [9], Oztop and Abu-Nada
[10], Abu-Nada and Oztop [11], Ögut [12], Aminossadati and Gha-
semi [13], Abu-Nada et al. [14], Khanafer et al. [15] indicated that
heat transfer enhances with addition of nanoparticle for constant
viscosity.
Number of studies on Brownian, Dufour and thermophoresis
effects on natural convection in nanofluid filled enclosures is
extremely limited. Among these, Buongiorno [16] investigated
different slip mechanisms between nanoparticles and base fluid. He
indicated that there are many slip mechanisms such as inertia,
Brownian diffusion, thermophoresis, diffusiophoresis, magnus
effect, fluid drainage, and gravity. He concluded that only Brownian
diffusion and thermophoresis are important slip mechanisms in the
absence of turbulent effects.
A study has been performed by Nield and Kuznetsov [17] on
the ChengeMinkowycz problem for natural convective boundary-
layer flow in a porous medium saturated by a nanofluid. They
included Brownian and thermophoresis effects and similarity
solution is presented. In their similar work [18], they made an

1290-0729/$ e see front matter Ó 2012 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.ijthermalsci.2012.01.016
 Z. Haddad et al. / International Journal of Thermal Sciences 57 (2012) 152e162 153

Nomenclature x*, y* dimensional coordinates (m)

x, y dimensionless coordinates
A aspect ratio (W/H)
Cp specific heat at constant pressure (J kg1 K1) Greek symbols
D diameter (m) a thermal diffusivity (m2 s1)
DB dimensionless Brownian diffusion coefficient b thermal expansion coefficient (K1)
D*B dimensional Brownian diffusion coefficient (m2/s) q dimensionless temperature
DT dimensionless thermal diffusion coefficient k dimensionless thermal conductivity
D*T dimensional thermal diffusion coefficient (m2/s) m dynamic viscosity (N sm2)
g gravitational acceleration (m s2) r density (kg m3)
Gr Grashof number, Gr ¼ gbf0 H 3 ðTH  TC Þ=n2fo s stress tensor (Pa)
H height of the enclosure (m) f* nanoparticle volumetric fraction
hp specific enthalpy, (J/kg) f relative nanoparticle volumetric fraction
jp total nanoparticle mass flux (kg/m2 s) U dimensionless vorticity
kB Boltzmann constant (J/K) u dimensional vorticity (s1)
k thermal conductivity (W/m$K) J dimensionless stream function
Le Lewis number, Le ¼ DTo =DBo j dimensional stream function (m2 s1)
Nu Nusselt number, Nu ¼ qH/kfDT
P pressure (Pa) Subscripts
Pr Prandtl number, Pr ¼ nfo =afo avg average
Q heat flux, (Wm2) b bulk
Re Reynolds number, Re ¼ rf kB T=3pm2f lf C cold
Ra Rayleigh number, Ra ¼ gbf0 H 3 ðTH  TC Þ=af nfo f base fluid
Sc Schmidt number, Sc ¼ nfo =DBo f0 base fluid at reference temperature
T* dimensional temperature ( C) H hot
V* dimensional nanofluid velocity (ms1) nf nanofluid
U, V dimensionless x- and y-components of velocity P particle

analytical study at the onset of convection in a horizontal layer of The main aim of the present work is to discuss the effect of both
a porous medium saturated by a nanofluid by including Brownian thermophoresis and Brownian motion on RayleigheBénard
and thermophoresis. Again, Nield and Kuznetsov [19] presented problem. Based on author’s knowledge above literature survey,
a work on a linear stability analysis for the onset of natural these effects are not taken into account for a mentioned problem.
convection in a horizontal nanofluid layer. The similar case is Thus, obtained results will be presented in this work via stream-
studied for natural convective boundary-layer flow of a nanofluid lines, isotherms, contours of nanoparticle distribution, local and
past a vertical plate by Kuznetsov and Nield [20]. Khan and Pop average Nusselt numbers at different nanoparticle volume fractions
[21] published a paper on boundary-layer flow of a nanofluid past and Rayleigh numbers.
a stretching sheet as a first paper in that field. Their model used
for the nanofluid incorporates the effects of Brownian motion and 2. Physical model
thermophoresis. They have taken into account the Pr number,
Lewis number, Brownian motion numbers, Nb and thermopho- Fig. 1 shows a schematic diagram of the RayleigheBénard (RB)
resis number, Nt. They indicated that the reduced Nusselt number problem. For the RB problem, the distance between the upper cold
is a decreasing function of each dimensionless number and and lower hot plates is defined by H and the width of the top and
Sherwood number is an increasing function of higher Prandtl bottom plates is defined by W. The plate’s width W is considered
number and a decreasing function of lower Pr number for each Le, infinite and treated by a periodicity boundary condition. The
Nb and Nt numbers. Recently, Pakravan and Yaghoubi [22] worked bottom plate is maintained at a hot temperature TH whereas the top
the thermophoresis, Brownian and Dufour effect on natural plate is maintained at a cold temperature TC. The fluid enclosed
convective heat transfer on nanofluids simultaneously. They between the plates is water based nanofluid containing CuO
showed that the effect of Dufour strongly decrease with nanoparticles. The nanofluid is assumed incompressible and the
temperature and Nusselt number of natural convection of nano- flow is assumed as laminar and two-dimensional. It is idealized that
fluids increases with mean temperature of mixture. The steady
boundary-layer flow of a nanofluid past a moving semi-infinite
flat plate in a uniform free stream is investigated by Bachok
et al. [23]. In their case, the plate moves in the same or opposite
directions to the free stream. They also included the effects of
Brownian motion and thermophoresis parameters to the solution.
Abu-Nada [24] studied the effect of variable thermal conductivity
and variable viscosity of nanofluid on heat transfer enhancement
in RayleigheBénard convection problem. He reported a decrease
in heat transfer by increasing the volume fraction of nanoparticles
for Ra > 103. It was found that for Ra > 103 the average Nusselt
number was much more sensitive to the viscosity models than to
the thermal conductivity models. Fig. 1. Schematic of the problem with boundary conditions and coordinates.
154 Z. Haddad et al. / International Journal of Thermal Sciences 57 (2012) 152e162

water and nanoparticles are in thermal equilibrium and only The thermal diffusivity of nanofluid is expressed as
Brownian diffusion and thermophoresis are important slip mech-
anisms between the two media. The thermo-physical properties of k
anf ¼  nf (8)
the nanofluid are assumed to be constant and are listed in Table 1, rcp nf
whereas the density variation in the buoyancy force term is
handled by the Boussinesq approximation. The viscosity and the The effective density of the nanofluid is given by
thermal conductivity of the nanofluid are considered as variable

properties; both vary with temperature and volume fraction of rnf ¼ 1  f* rf þ f* rp (9)
nanoparticles.

3. Governing equations The heat capacitance of the nanofluid is written as (Abu-Nada

[24] and Khanafer et al. [15]):
The governing equations for the laminar, two-dimensional,  
   
steady state natural convection are written as: rcp nf
¼ 1  f* rcp f
þ f* rcp p (10)
Continuity equation:
The effective thermal conductivity of the nanofluid calculated by
V$V * ¼ 0 (1) the Chon et al. [25] model is given by:
Momentum equation:  0:3690 !0:7476
knf df kp
1 ¼ 1 þ 64:7f0:7640 Pr0:9955
T Re1:2321
V * $VV * ¼  Vp þ V$s þ g (2) kf dp kf
rnf
(11)
where the stress tensor is given as [16]
where PrT and Re are defined by:


t 
* *
s ¼ mnf VV þ VV (3) mf
PrT ¼ (12)
rf af
Energy equation:
The energy equation for the nanofluid can be written as [16]
! rf kB T

 Re ¼ (13)
1 rp cp VT * $VT *
3pm2f lf
*
V $VT ¼ *
V k$VT * þ D*B Vf* $VT * þ D*T
rnf cnf rnf cnf TC*
(4) The symbol kB is the Boltzmann constant ¼ 1.3807  1023 J/K,
and lf is the mean free path of fluid particles given as 0.17 nm [26].
Nanoparticles conservation equation This model embraces the effect of nanoparticle size and tempera-
The continuity equation for the nanoparticles in the absence of ture on nanofluid thermal conductivity encompassing a wide
any chemical reactions is given as [16] temperature range between 21 and 70  C. This model was
! further tested experimentally by Angue Minsta et al. [27] for the
VT *
V  $Vf* ¼ V$ D*B Vf* þ D*T (5) pair of Al2O3 and CuO nanoparticles and found suitable to predict
TC the thermal conductivity of these nanoparticles up to a volume
fraction of 9%.
Here f* is nanoparticle volume fraction, D*B is the Brownian diffu-
The correlation for the dynamic viscosity of CuOeWater nano-
sion coefficient given by the EinsteineStokes’s equation [16]:
fluid is derived using available experimental data of Nguyen et al.
[26]. The R2 value is 99.8% and a maximum error is 5%. The corre-
kB T *
D*B ¼ (6) lation for CuO nanofluids is given by:
3pmf dp
15:937 1356:14
where mf is the viscosity of the fluid and dp is the nanoparticle mCuO ðcpÞ ¼  0:6967 þ þ 1:238f þ
diameter.
T T2
The thermophoretic diffusion coefficient D*T as reported in [16]
f 19652:74
 0:259f2  30:88  þ 0:01593f3
is given by T T3
! ! f2 f
þ 4:38206 þ 147:573 (14)
mf kf T T2
D*T ¼ 0:26 f* (7)
rf 2kf þ kp
The viscosity given in Eq. (14) is expressed in centipoise and the
In equation (7), kf and kp are the thermal conductivity of the temperature in  C. Fig. 2 presents a plot of the viscosity of
fluid and particle materials, respectively. CuOewater nanofluids as a function of temperature and concen-
tration of nanoparticles calculated using Eq. (14). The figure also
Table 1 shows the measured data from Nguyen et al. experiments. It is very
Thermo physical properties of fluid and nanoparticles [24]. clear that for f ¼ 1% and f ¼ 7%, the current non-linear regression is
Physical properties Fluid phase (water) CuO in good agreement with the experimental measurements.
It is worth mentioning that the viscosity of the base fluid (water)
Cp(J/kg K) 4179 540
r (kg/m3) 997.1 6500 is considered to be variable with temperature and the flowing
k (W/m$K) 0.613 18.0 equation is used to evaluate the viscosity of water [26]
b  105 (1/K) 21 0.85
dp (nm) 0.384 29 mf ¼ 2:414  105  10247:8ðT140Þ (15)
 Z. Haddad et al. / International Journal of Thermal Sciences 57 (2012) 152e162 155

12         
v vJ v vJ 1 v vf v vf
1% (Present Regression)
f  f ¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffi DB þ DB
vx vy vy vx Sc Gr vx vx vy vy
10 4.5% (Present Regression)
      
Le DT 1 v vq v vq
7% (Present Regression) þ pffiffiffiffiffiffi DT þ DT (22)
9% (Present Regression)
Sc Gr Tc fb vx vx vy vy
8
9% Nguyen et al. data [26] Kinematics
μ (cp)

7% Nguyen et al. data [26]

6
v2 j v2 j
4.5 % Nguyen et al. data [26] þ ¼ U (23)
vx2 vy2
1% Nguyen et al. data [26]
4
where

2
gbf0 H 3 ðTH  TC Þ n fo nf DTo
Gr ¼ ; Pr ¼ ; Sc ¼ o ; Le ¼ (24)
n2fo afo DBo DBo
0
20 30 40 50 60 70 80 where the subscript “o” stands for the reference temperature which
T (°C) is taken as 22  C in the current study, whereas the temperature
Fig. 2. Comparison between CuOewater viscosities calculated using Eq. (14) and those
difference between the bottom and top plates is fixed to 1  C.
of Ref. [26]. The dimensionless horizontal and vertical velocities are given as:

vJ
U ¼ ; (25)
Introducing the following dimensionless variables: vy

x* y* u j
x¼ ; y ¼ ; U ¼ qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi ; J ¼ qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi; vJ
H H gb HDT =H H gb H DT V ¼  : (26)
f0 f0 vx
U* V T *  TC f* The dimensionless boundary conditions can be written as:
U ¼ qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi; V ¼ qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi; q ¼ ;f¼ ; (16)
gbf0 H DT gbf0 HDT TH  TC fb
v2 J
On the top plate : J ¼ 0; U ¼  2 ; q ¼ 0; (27)
knf m a D* D* vy
k¼ ; m ¼ nf ; a ¼ nf ; DB ¼ B ; DT ¼ T
kfo mfo a fo DBo DTo
v2 J
The non dimensional form of equations (1), (3) and (4) in terms On the bottom plate : J ¼ 0; U ¼  2 ; q ¼ 1; (28)
vy
of stream function-vorticity becomes:
On the left and right boundaries, a periodic boundary condition
        
v vJ v vJ v vU v vU is used: J0, j ¼ JN,j ,U0,j ¼ UN,j, and q0,j ¼ qN,j. Where 0 and N
U  U ¼L m þ m
vx vy vy vx vx vx vy vy represent the left and the right boundary of the computational
! !  ! domain, respectively (see Fig. 1). Also, the symbol j stands for the
bp vq v m vV
2
þ f þð1 fÞ þ4L grid location along the left or right boundary.
bf0 vx vxvy vy The literature has shown [17,20,22] that the type of boundary
!   
v2 m v2 m vU vV vm vU vm vU conditions used for f when incorporating both Brownian and
þL  þ þL þ (17) thermophoresis effects, is the f-constant boundary conditions.
vx2 vy2 vy vx vx vx vy vy
Even though it was recognized that assuming that the volumetric
where fraction of the nanoparticles is constant on boundaries is somewhat
arbitrary and it could be argued that zero particles flux on the
1
L ¼ ! (18) boundaries is more realistic physically.
pffiffiffiffiffiffi rp It is therefore, pertinent to have a thorough knowledge of the
Gr ð1  fÞ þ f
rf flow adopting realistic boundary conditions for f. Thus, the diver-
gence of the diffusion mass flux for the nanoparticles given as the
         sum of two diffusion terms (Brownian diffusion and thermopho-
v vJ v vJ x v vq v vq
q  q ¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffi k þ k resis) is set at zero and given by
vx vy vy vx Pr Gr vx vx vy vy
  !
gfb vf vq vf vq gLe VT *
þ pffiffiffiffiffiffiDB þ þ pffiffiffiffiffiffi V$ D*B Vf* þ D*T ¼ 0 (29)
Sc Gr vx vx vy vy Sc Gr TC
   2  2 
DT vq vq
 DT þ ð19Þ which can be expressed as
Tc vx vy
!
where v2 f 1 DT v2 q
¼  (30)
  ! vy2 NBT DB vy2
rcp f
x ¼     (20)
ð1  fÞ rcp f þ f rcp p where

  ! fb DBo TC
rcp NBT ¼
g ¼   p   (21) DTo DT
ð1  fÞ rcp f þ f rcp p ð ¼ Brownian diffusivity=thermophoretic diffusivityÞ (31)
156 Z. Haddad et al. / International Journal of Thermal Sciences 57 (2012) 152e162

In the linear theory, temperature change in the nanofluid is Table 2

assumed small in comparison to Tc. Therefore, nanofluid tempera- Grid independence study.

ture T in the denominator of Eq. (22) has been replaced by Tc [26]. Grid size Nu
21  21 3.188343
31  31 3.146399
4. Numerical method
41  41 3.137510
51  51 3.135880
Equations (17), (19) and (22), absorbing the variable properties 61  61 3.136542
along with the corresponding boundary conditions are solved using 71  71 3.137558
a finite volume method [28,29]. The diffusion term in the vorticity 81  81 3.138772

and energy equations is approximated by a second-order central

difference scheme which gives a stable solution. Furthermore,
a second-order upwind differencing scheme is adopted for the Note that if the second and the third term are zero, Eq. (37)
convective terms. The algebraic finite volume equations for the becomes the familiar Nusselt equation for pure fluid.
vorticity and energy equations are written into the following form: A normalized average Nusselt number is defined as the ratio of
Nusselt number at any volume fraction of nanoparticles to that of
ap fp ¼ aE fE þ aW fW þ aN fN þ aS fS þ b (32) pure water:
where P, W, E, N, S denote cell location, west face of the control
Nuavg ðfÞ
volume, east face of the control volume, north face of the control Nuavg * ðfÞ ¼ (39)
Nuavg ðf ¼ 0Þ
volume and south face of the control volume respectively. Similar
expression is also used for the kinematics equation where only The normalized average Nusselt number is used as an indicator
central difference is used for the discretization at the cell P of the of heat transfer enhancement where values greater than unity
control volume. The resulted algebraic equations are solved using correspond to an enhancement in heat transfer.
successive over/under relaxation method. Successive under relaxa-
tion was used due to the non-linear nature of the governing equa-
tions especially for the vorticity equation at high Rayleigh numbers.
The convergence criterion is defined by the following a 1
expression: 0.9 Present Work
Pj ¼ M Pi ¼ N 0.8 Krane and Jesse [30]
j¼1 i¼1 fnþ1  fn
ε ¼ Pj ¼ M Pi ¼ N 3106 (33) 0.7
Khanafer et al. [15]
j¼1 i¼1 fnþ1
0.6
where ε is the tolerance; M and N are the number of grid points in
0.5
θ

the x and y directions, respectively.

An accurate representation of vorticity at the surface is the most 0.4
critical step in the stream function-vorticity formulation. A second
order accurate formula is used for the vorticity boundary condition. 0.3
For example, the vorticity at the bottom wall is expressed as 0.2
8j1;j  j2;j 0.1
U¼  (34)
2ðDyÞ 2
0
After solving for J, U, q, and f, more useful quantities for 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
x
engineering applications are obtained. For example, the Nusselt
number can be expressed as b 1,0
Khanafer [15]
present work
qH
Nu ¼ (35) 0,8
kf D T

The energy flux relative to the nanofluid can be calculated as the

sum of the conduction heat flux and the heat flux due to nano-
0,6
particle diffusion:
θ

0,4
q ¼ knf VT * þ hp jp (36)
Where cp and hp are the specific heat and enthalpy of the nano-
particle material, respectively. 0,2
The Nusselt number on the hot wall can be defined as
 
vq DTo rp cp vf vq 0,0
Nu ¼ k  NBT DB þ DT (37)
vy kf vy vy 0,0 0,2 0,4 0,6 0,8 1,0
X
Where
Fig. 3. a: Comparison between present work and other published data for the
temperature distribution at the vertical mid section along the width of the enclosure
k
k ¼ nf (38) (Ra ¼ 105, Pr ¼ 0.7), b: Validation of the present code against Khanafer [15] for a square
kf enclosure filled with a water-Cu nanofluid (f ¼ 5%, Gr ¼ 105, Pr ¼ 6.2).
 Z. Haddad et al. / International Journal of Thermal Sciences 57 (2012) 152e162 157

5. Grid independency and code validation
A grid independency study has been carried out for CuOewater
nanofluid (Ra ¼ 105 and f ¼ 9%), taking into account thermopho-
resis and Brownian effects. Table 2 presents the average Nusselt
number for five different grid sizes. A grid size of 51  51 is found to
meet the requirements of both the grid independency study and
the computational time limits.
The present numerical solution is further validated by
comparing the present code results for Ra ¼ 105 and Pr ¼ 0.70
against the experiment of Krane and Jessee [30] and numerical
simulation of Khanafer et al. [15]. It can be seen that the results
agree well with the results reported in the literature as shown in
Fig. 3a. Moreover, the present code is also validated against the
work by Khanafer et al. [15] as shown in Fig. 3b. In this study, an
enclosure filled with a water-Cu nanofluid (f ¼ 5%, Gr ¼ 105,
Pr ¼ 6.2) is considered. It is clear that the results are in good
agreement. The convergence criterion was set such that the relative
error between two successive iterations was less than 106 [31].
6. Results and discussion
A numerical study has been performed in this work to investi-
gate the effects of thermophoresis and Brownian motion in

Fig. 4. Isotherms (on the left) and streamlines (on the right) of CuO-nanofluid at Ra ¼ 104, (a) f ¼ 1% (Jmin ¼ 0.014, 0.03), (b) f ¼ 3% (Jmin ¼ 0.03), (c) f ¼ 5% (Jmin ¼ 0.02),
(d) f ¼ 7% (Jmin ¼ 0.01), (e) f ¼ 9%, (——) absence of thermophoresis and Brownian effects, (d) with thermophoresis and Brownian effects.
158 Z. Haddad et al. / International Journal of Thermal Sciences 57 (2012) 152e162

RayleigheBénard convection problem. The problem is solved for
two cases. In the first case, thermophoresis and Brownian effects
are taken into account and in the second case the problem is solved
by neglecting the role of thermophoresis and Brownian effects. The
Rayleigh number and the solid volume fraction are varied in the
ranges of 104  Ra  106 and 0 f  9%. Water was chosen as base
fluid and CuO nanoparticles are added into the base fluid. In this
work, the results are presented for small temperature difference
(fixed to 1  C). It is noteworthy that the conservation equations are
strongly coupled. That is, v depends on f via viscosity; f depends
on T mostly because of thermophoresis; T depends on f via thermal
conductivity and also via the Brownian and thermophoretic terms
in the energy equation; f and T obviously depend on v because of
the convection terms in the nanoparticle continuity and energy
equations, respectively.
Fig. 4 (a)e(e) present the isotherms (on the left side) and
streamlines (on the right side) for the two different cases (with
thermophoresis and Brownian effects and without thermophoresis
and Brownian effects) at Ra ¼ 104 using different values of nano-
particles volume fraction. It must be noted that the results for
Ra ¼ 105 and Ra ¼ 106 are not presented here as they show similar
trends to the results of Ra ¼ 104. It is evident from the streamlines
the existence of the two circulations RB rolls and it is clear that by
elevating the volume fraction of nanoparticles the maximum

Fig. 5. Nanoparticle distribution for different Rayleigh number as 105 (on the left) and 106 (on the right), (a) f ¼ 1%, (b) f ¼ 3%, (c) f ¼ 5%, (d) f ¼ 7%.
 Z. Haddad et al. / International Journal of Thermal Sciences 57 (2012) 152e162 159

strength of streamlines contours is attenuated and the isotherms
are stratified near the top and the bottom plates of the enclosure.
This means weaker buoyant flow circulation is occurring in the
enclosure, which demonstrates the dominance of the conduction
heat transfer at high values of nanoparticle concentrations namely
at f ¼ 9%. Comparison of overlapped isotherms and streamlines
plots shows that the presence of thermophoresis and Brownian
motion does not have a significant influence on the isotherms and
streamlines shapes. However, it is clearly observed that there is
a slight difference for f ¼ 1% where the minimum values of the
stream function for the case with and without thermophoresis and
Brownian effects are Jmin ¼ 0.03 and Jmin ¼ 0.014, respec-
tively. It is very interesting to note that this difference was observed
for f ¼ 3% and f ¼ 5% at Ra ¼ 105 and Ra ¼ 106. This is attributed to
a particulate buoyancy force, which is the density variation that is
due to variable volume fraction of nanoparticles. This force helps
nanofluid to have strong convective heat transfer for low concen-
tration of nanoparticles in the presence of the combined effects of
thermophoresis and Brownian motion.
It is clear that the streamlines and isotherms are not sufficient to
clarify the difference between the case of with and without ther-
mophoresis and Brownian effects since T, v and f are strongly

Fig. 6. Variation of nanoparticle distribution along the cold wall (on the right) and hot wall (on the left), (a) Ra ¼ 104, (b) Ra ¼ 105, (c) Ra ¼ 106.
160 Z. Haddad et al. / International Journal of Thermal Sciences 57 (2012) 152e162
dependent as it was explained earlier. Therefore, the spatial distri-
bution of nanoparticles between the top and bottom plates is of
great importance and it is a key parameter for studying the effect of
nanoparticles on flow fields and temperature distributions. There-
fore, to develop a better understanding of this point, Fig. 5 portrays
Fig. 7. Variation of local Nusselt number along the bottom wall for different cases and
nanoparticle fractions, (a) Ra ¼ 104, (b) Ra ¼ 105, (c) Ra ¼ 106.
the nanoparticle distribution for Ra ¼ 105 (left side) and Ra ¼ 106
(right side) for different nanoparticle volume fraction. The general
view of the figures shows that thermophoresis and Brownian effects
make the nanoparticles distribution to become non-uniform
throughout the domain. Nanoparticle distribution is more non-
uniform for lower particle concentration and high Rayleigh
number. However, it is more uniform for low Rayleigh number. For
any case, nanoparticle concentration is higher at the top middle side
and values are decreased with increasing of volume fraction. This
decreasing is more clear at higher Rayleigh numbers. On the
contrary, nanoparticle volume fraction values are very small near
the left and right bottom corners. This indicates that in the analysis
of thermal transport in nanofluid, one must be concerned about the
near wall region which may have a lower or higher particle
concentration, leading to higher or lower heat transfer rates.
In order to obtain a better understanding of nanoparticles
distribution within the enclosure, the nanoparticle volume fraction
profiles along the hot bottom wall and cold top wall for different
Rayleigh numbers and different volume fractions are presented in
Fig. 6. Looking at Fig. 6, it is observed that the addition of nano-
particles causes the nanoparticle volumetric fraction to fall along
the hot wall. Furthermore, higher values are obtained for higher
Rayleigh number. It is also observed that that the nanoparticle
volumetric fraction concentration along the cold wall is increased
and along the hot wall is decreased. A maximum value is observed
around X ¼ 1.0 and bell-shaped symmetrical distribution is
obtained on cold wall. However, the nanoparticles volume fraction
values are uniform around X ¼ 1.0 along the cold wall. In other
words, the presence of Brownian and thermophoresis effects
makes nanoparticles distribution, particularly at high values of
Rayleigh number, to become non-uniform and enhances energy
transport between the two walls, which supports the significance
of the second and third terms on the right-hand side of Eq. (4).
Fig. 7 presents Nusselt number variation along the bottom hot
surface using various volume fractions of nanoparticles. Overall
assessment indicates that for both cases, when Brownian and
thermophoresis effects are neglected or considered, a reduction in
Nusselt number is observed for all Rayleigh numbers by increasing
the volume fraction of nanoparticles. It is worth noting that the
heat transfer, by considering the role of Brownian and thermo-
phoresis effects, is higher than the case without considering the
role of thermophoresis and Brownian motion. There is one case
registered where the heat transfer is pure conductive and this is for
Ra ¼ 104 and f ¼ 9%. However, the rest of the cases convection heat
transfer is taking place. Therefore, without considering the role of
Brownian and thermophoresis effects, the presence of nano-
particles will make the nanofluid to be more viscous, which will
reduce convection currents and accordingly diminish the temper-
ature gradient and the Nusselt number at the heated surface (more
explanation is given by Abu-Nada and Chamkha [32]). However, by
considering the role Brownian and thermophoresis effects, the
addition of nanoparticles will enhances heat transfer due to the
relative motion of nanoparticles with respect to the base fluid (slip)
which will cause more energy carried by these particles from places
with high energy (hot wall) to the places with less energy (cold
wall). This relative motion of nanoparticles almost double the heat
transfer compared to the case of absence of Brownian motion and
thermophoresis as shown in Fig. 7.
Variation of average Nusselt number is presented in Fig. 8. As
seen from the figure, average Nusselt number increases with Ray-
leigh number for both presence and absence of Brownian and
thermophoresis effect. Also, it is decreased by increasing nano-
particle volume fraction for both cases. It is shown that higher
average Nusselt number values are observed by considering the
role of Brownian and thermophoresis effect. Besides, it is observed

9 7. Conclusions
Presence of Brownian and
Absence of Brownian and
Thermophoresis effects
Thermophoresis effects
6
Nuavg
3
0
4 5
10
Fig. 8. Variation of average Nusselt number with nanoparticle volume fractions at
different Rayleigh numbers.
from the figure that Nusselt number values are very close to each
other for lower concentrations of nanoparticles for both cases since
the viscosity of the nanofluid is relatively small.
Finally, Fig. 9 illustrates the normalized average Nusselt
number along the bottom heated surface. For the range of
Ra ¼ 104e106, the trend if fairly similar for both cases where
a decrease in Nusselt number occurs for an increase in volume
fraction of nanoparticles. It is also worth mentioning that heat
transfer experiences more deterioration for nanoparticles volume
fraction greater than 5% and for all Rayleigh numbers. Also, the
figures shows that by considering thermophoresis and Brownian
there is always enhancement in heat transfer (since Nuavg* is
greater than unity). But, from a heat transfer enhancement
perspective, it is better to keep the concentration as mush low as
possible to guarantee low viscosity of nanofluids. However, this
conclusion is not true by neglecting the role of thermophoresis
and Brownian motion where deterioration in heat transfer is
taking place at large concentrations of nanoparticles.
2.5
2 enclosures filled with Cu-water nanofluid, Int. J. Heat Fluid Flow 30 (2009)
1.5
Nu avg*
1
0.5
1E6 without
1E6 with
0 [17] D.A. Nield, A.V. Kuznetsov, The Cheng-Minkowycz problem for natural
0 2
Fig. 9. Normalized Nusselt number using different volume fractions and different
Rayleigh numbers.
Z. Haddad et al. / International Journal of Thermal Sciences 57 (2012) 152e162 161
ϕ=0
RayleigheBénard problem is studied using CuoeWater nano-
ϕ=1%
ϕ=3% fluid for different Rayleigh numbers and different nanoparticle
ϕ=5% volume fractions. The study is performed by considering the role of
ϕ=7% Brownian and thermophoresis effects and compared to the case
ϕ=9%
where both effects are neglected. The main findings are listed as
follows
 It is found that higher heat transfer is formed when Brownian
and thermophoresis effects are considered.
 By considering the role of thermophoresis and Brownian
motion there is always an enhancement in heat transfer by the
presence of nanoparticles. However, the enhancement is more
pronounced at low volume fraction of nanoparticles.
 When neglecting the role of thermophoresis and Brownian
6 deterioration in heat transfer it is observed and this deterio-
10 10
ration is increased by increasing the concentration of
Ra nanoparticles.
 In general, increasing nanoparticle concentration has an
adverse effect on heat transfer.
 The presence of thermophoresis and Brownian motion does
not have a significant influence on the isotherms and stream-
lines shapes.
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