Impacts of amplitude and local thermal non-equilibrium design on natural convection within nanofluid superposed wavy porous layers

A numerical study is presented for the thermo-free convection inside a cavity with vertical corrugated walls consisting of a solid part of fixed thickness, a part of porous media filled with a nanofluid, and a third part filled with a nanofluid. Alumina nanoparticle water-based nanofluid is used as a working fluid. The cavity’s wavy vertical surfaces are subjected to various temperature values, hot to the left and cold to the right. In order to generate a free-convective flow, the horizontal walls are kept adiabatic. For the porous medium, the Local Thermal Non-Equilibrium (LTNE) model is used. The method of solving the problem’s governing equations is the Galerkin weighted residual finite elements method. The results report the impact of the active parameters on the thermo-free convective flow and heat transfer features. The obtained results show that the high Darcy number and the porous media’s low modified thermal conductivity ratio have important roles for the local thermal non-equilibrium effects. The heat transfer rates through the nanofluid and solid phases are found to be better for high values of the undulation amplitude, the Darcy number, and the volume fraction of the nanofluid, while a limit in the increase of heat transfer rate through the solid phase with the modified thermal ratio is found, particularly for high values of porosity. Furthermore, as the porosity rises, the nanofluid and solid phases’ heat transfer rates decline for low Darcy numbers and increase for high Darcy numbers.