Buoyant convective flow of different hybrid nanoliquids in a non-uniformly heated annulus

A sealed annular geometry containing nanoliquids with differently heated boundaries aptly describes the geometrical structure of many important cooling applications. The present study reports the numerical investigation on the effect of axially varying temperature in the form of sinusoidal thermal profiles along the side walls of an annular enclosure containing different hybrid nanoliquids with insulated horizontal boundaries. An implicit FDM based approach is adopted to solve the transient and steady-state model equations and numerical simulations are presented to describe the qualitative flow behavior as well as the quantitative thermal transport rates. The prime objective of the analysis is to enhance the buoyant flow circulation strength as well as the associated thermal dissipation rates and is achieved by identifying a suitable combination of nanoparticle along with a proper choice of geometrical parameters. Numerical predictions revealed the buoyant motion and thermal dissipation rate could be effectively controlled by a proper selection of phase deviation. Further, the appropriate combination of nanoparticles is another crucial parameter in enhancing the thermal transport in the geometry.