Mathematical Problems in Engineering
Volume 2012 (2012), Article ID 128943, 13 pages
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2012/128943
Research Article

Dynamical System Analysis of Thermal Convection in a Horizontal Layer of Nanofluids Heated from Below

J. M. Jawdat,1 I. Hashim,1 and S. Momani2

1School of Mathematical Sciences and Solar Energy Research Institute, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia
2Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Science, The University of Jordan, Amman 11942, Jordan

Received 10 May 2012; Accepted 26 July 2012

Academic Editor: Jun-Juh Yan

Copyright © 2012 J. M. Jawdat et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

The effect of nanofluids on chaotic convection in a fluid layer heated from below was studied in this paper for low Prandtl number based on the theory of dynamical systems. A low-dimensional, Lorenz-like model was obtained using Galerkin-truncated approximations. The fourth-order Runge-Kutta method was employed to solve the nonlinear system. The results show that inhibition of chaotic convection can be observed when using nanofluids.