Moderate Prandtl Number Nanofluid Thermocapillary Convection Instability in Rectangular Cavity

Thermocapillary convection of moderate Prandtl number nanofluid in rectangular cavity is numerically investigated in this paper, and the effect of nanoparticle volume fraction on flow instability is analyzed. The computational results show that, the critical temperature difference deceases gradually with nanoparticle volume fraction increasing, and nanofluid thermocapillary convection is less stable than the base fluid. With the increase of nanoparticle volume fraction the velocity oscillatory amplitude decreases, but the oscillatory period increases. Nanofluid oscillatory thermocapillary convection has one dominant oscillation frequency, and with nanoparticles volume fraction increasing the second fundamental frequency strengthens gradually