Natural convective heat transfer in a hemispherical cavity filled with ZnO–H2O nanofluid saturated porous medium

This three-dimensional (3D) numerical work based on the volume control method quantifies the convective heat transfer occurring in a hemispherical cavity filled with a ZnO–H2O nanofluid saturated porous medium. Its main objective is to improve the cooling of an electronic component contained in this enclosure. The volume fraction of the considered monophasic nanofluid varies between 0% (pure water) and 10%, while the cupola is maintained isothermal at cold temperature. During operation, the active device generates a heat flux leading to high Rayleigh number reaching 7.29×1010 and may be inclined with respect to the horizontal plane at an angle ranging from 0∘ to 180∘ (horizontal position with cupola facing upwards and downwards, respectively) by steps of 15∘. The natural convective heat transfer represented by the average Nusselt number has been quantified for many configurations obtained by combining the tilt angle, the Rayleigh number, the nanofluid volume fraction and the ratio between the thermal conductivity of the porous medium’s solid matrix and that of the base fluid. This ratio has a significant influence on the free convective heat transfer and ranges from 0 (without porous media) to 70 in this work. The influence of the four physical parameters is analyzed and commented. An empirical correlation between the Nusselt number and these parameters is proposed, allowing determination of the average natural convective heat transfer occurring in the hemispherical cavity.