Finite-volume lattice Boltzmann modeling of thermal transport in nanofluids

A finite-volume formulation of the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) is developed, to investigate the thermo-hydrodynamic transport in nanofluids. To this purpose, by considering different forces acting on the nano-particles, a cell-centered scheme is used to discretize the convection operator and the double distribution function model is applied to describe the dynamics of temperature field. To enhance numerical stability, weighting factors are used as flux correctors. The method is employed to simulate nanofluids in plane Poiseuille and backward-facing step flows. Thermo-hydrodynamics characteristics are analyzed with specific emphasis on the effects of the nano-particle concentration on the efficiency of heat transport in the aforementioned settings. (c) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.