Application of LBM in simulation of natural convection in a nanofluid filled square cavity with curve boundaries

A two-dimensional numerical study has been performed to investigate natural convection in a square cavity with curve boundaries filled with Cu–water nanofluid. Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM) is used to simulate this problem. The effective thermal conductivity and viscosity of nanofluid are calculated by the Maxwell–Garnetts (MG) and Brinkman models, respectively. This investigation was compared with other numerical methods and was found to be in excellent agreement. Effects of nanoparticle volume fraction, Rayleigh numbers and inclination angle on flow and heat transfer are considered. The results proved that the change of inclination angle has a significant impact on the thermal and hydrodynamic flow fields. Also it can be found that maximum values of enhancement are obtained at Ra = 103 and Ra = 105 for γ > 0° and γ < 0°, respectively.