Natural convective cooling of electronics contained in tilted hemispherical enclosure filled with a porous medium saturated by water-copper nanofluid

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to determine the thermal behavior of a hemispherical electronic device contained in a concentric hemispherical enclosure, cooled by means of free convection through a porous medium saturated with a water–copper nanofluid. Influence of various parameters on the thermal state of this device is processed in this work. The high power generated by the dome leads to a Rayleigh number varying in the 5.2 × 107-7.29 × 1010 range. The volume fraction of the monophasic nanofluid varies between 0 (pure water) and 10 per cent while the base of the hemispherical cavity (disc) is inclined between 0° (horizontal disc with dome facing upward) and 180° (horizontal disc with dome facing downward). Design/methodology/approach: The three-dimensional numerical approach is carried out by means of the volume control method associated to the SIMPLE algorithm. Findings: The work shows that the average temperature of the active component increases with the Rayleigh number according to a conventional law of the power type. The increase in the angle of inclination also goes with a systematic rise in the average temperature. However, increasing the ratio of the solid–fluid thermal conductivities decreases the average temperature of the component, given the respective contributions of the conductive and natural convective phenomena occurring through the nanofluid saturated porous media. The values of this ratio vary in this work between 0 (interstice between the two hemispheres without porous medium) and 70. Originality/value: The correlation proposed in this work allows to calculate the temperature of the active electronic component for all the combinations of the four influence parameters which vary in wide ranges. © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited.