Abstract
Purpose This study aims to focus on the numerical simulation of natural convection from heated novel fin shapes in a cavity filled with nanofluid and saturated with a partial layer of porous medium using improved incompressible smoothed particle hydrodynamics (ISPH) method. Design/methodology/approach The dimensionless of Lagrangian description for the governing equations were numerically solved using improved ISPH method. The current ISPH method was improved in term of wall boundary treatment by using renormalization kernel function. The effects of different novel heated (Tree, T, H, V, and Z) fin shapes, Rayleigh number Ra(10(3) - 10(6) ), porous height H-p (0.2-0.6), Darcy parameter Da(10(-5) - 10(-1) ) and solid volume fraction phi(0.0-0.05) on the heat transfer of nanofluid have been investigated. Findings The results showed that the variation on the heated novel fin shapes gives a suitable choice for enhancement heat transfer inside multi-layer porous cavity. Among all fin shapes, the H-fin shape causes the maximum stream function and Z-fin shape causes the highest value of average Nusselt number. The concentrations of the fluid flows in the nanofluid region depend on the Rayleigh and Darcy parameters. In addition, the penetrations of the fluid flows through porous layers are affected by porous heights and Darcy parameter. Originality/value Natural convection from novel heated fins in a cavity filled with nanofluid and saturated with a partial layer of porous medium have been investigated numerically using improved ISPH method.