Effect of Heated Wall Corrugation on Thermal Performance in an L-Shaped Vented Cavity Crossed by Metal Foam Saturated with Copper–Water Nanofluid

Practical applications such as solar power energy systems, electronic cooling, and the convective drying of vented enclosures require continuous developments to enhance fluid and heat flow. Numerous studies have investigated the enhancement of heat transfer in L-formed vented cavities by inserting heat-generating components, filling the cavity with nanofluids, providing an inner rotating cylinder and a phase-change packed system, etc. Contemporary work has examined the thermal performance of L-shaped porous vented enclosures, which can be augmented by using metal foam, using nanofluids as a saturated fluid, and increasing the wall surface area by corrugating the cavity’s heating wall. These features are not discussed in published articles, and their exploration can be considered a novelty point in this work. In this study, a vented cavity was occupied by a copper metal foam with <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mi>P</mi><mi>P</mi><mi>I</mi><mo>=</mo><mn>10</mn></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula> and saturated with a copper–water nanofluid. The cavity walls were well insulated except for the left wall, which was kept at a hot isothermal temperature and was either non-corrugated or corrugated with rectangular waves. The Darcy–Brinkman–Forchheimer model and local thermal non-equilibrium models were adopted in momentum and energy-governing equations and solved numerically by utilizing commercial software. The influences of various effective parameters, including the Reynolds number (<inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mn>20</mn><mo>≤</mo><mi>R</mi><mi>e</mi><mo>≤</mo><mn>1000</mn></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula>), the nanoparticle volume fraction (<inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mn>0</mn><mo>%</mo><mo>≤</mo><mi>φ</mi><mo>≤</mo><mn>20</mn><mo>%</mo></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula>), the inflow and outflow vent aspect ratios (<inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mn>0.1</mn><mo>≤</mo><mrow><mrow><mi>D</mi></mrow><mo>/</mo><mrow><mi>H</mi></mrow></mrow><mo>≤</mo><mn>0.4</mn></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula>), the rectangular wave corrugation number (<inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mi>N</mi><mo>=</mo><mn>5</mn></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula> and <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mi>N</mi><mo>=</mo><mn>10</mn></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula>), and the corrugation dimension ratio (<inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mi>C</mi><mi>R</mi><mo>=</mo><mn>1</mn></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula> and <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mi>C</mi><mi>R</mi><mo>=</mo><mn>0.5</mn></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula>) were determined. The results indicate that the flow field and heat transfer were affected mainly by variations in <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mi>R</mi><mi>e</mi></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula>, <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mrow><mrow><mi>D</mi></mrow><mo>/</mo><mrow><mi>H</mi></mrow></mrow></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula>, and <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mi>φ</mi></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula> for a non-corrugated left wall; they were additionally influenced by <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mi>N</mi></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula> and <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mi>C</mi><mi>R</mi></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula> when the wall was corrugated. The fluid- and solid-phase temperatures of the metal foam increased with an increase in <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mi>R</mi><mi>e</mi></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula> and <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mrow><mrow><mi>D</mi></mrow><mo>/</mo><mrow><mi>H</mi></mrow></mrow></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula>. The fluid-phase Nusselt number near the hot left sidewall increased with an increase in <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mi>φ</mi></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula> by <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mfenced separators="|"><mrow><mn>25</mn><mo>–</mo><mn>60</mn></mrow></mfenced><mo>%</mo></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula>, while the solid-phase Nusselt number decreased by <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mfenced separators="|"><mrow><mn>10</mn><mo>–</mo><mn>30</mn></mrow></mfenced><mo>%</mo></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula>, and these numbers rose by around <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mn>3.5</mn></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula> times when the Reynolds number increased from <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mn>20</mn></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula> to <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mn>1000</mn></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula>. For the corrugated hot wall, the Nusselt numbers of the two metal foam phases increased with an increase in <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mi>R</mi><mi>e</mi></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula> and decreased with an increase in <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mrow><mrow><mi>D</mi></mrow><mo>/</mo><mrow><mi>H</mi></mrow></mrow></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula>, <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mi>C</mi><mi>R</mi></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula>, or <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mi>N</mi></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula> by <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mn>10</mn><mo>%</mo></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula>, <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mn>19</mn><mo>%</mo></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula>, and <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mn>37</mn><mo>%</mo></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula>. The original aspect of this study is its use of a thermal, non-equilibrium, nanofluid-saturated metal foam in a corrugated L-shaped vented cavity. We aimed to investigate the thermal performance of this system in order to reinforce the viability of applying this material in thermal engineering systems.