In this study, mathematical modeling of the energy transfer and flow characteristics of ternary nanoliquid in a square enclosure is performed. In the cavity considered, the left and bottom borders are warmed uniformly or non-uniformly when the rest of the borders are cooled. The robust finite element method with quads and triangles as elements is used to work out the control equations of the problem. The current study is validated against previously published works, and good agreement is shown. The isolines are investigated for various Rayleigh numbers at uniform and non-uniform thermal boundary conditions. The impact of ternary hybrid nanofluids on the mean Nusselt number at hot borders is explored in dependence on the Rayleigh number and nanoparticle concentration. A comparative study of different fluids for the mean Nusselt number at heated borders is also conducted and analyzed with appropriate graphs and tables. It has been shown that ternary nanofluids can be more effective compared to mono- and hybrid nanofluids, with a more essential growth of the energy transport rate with nanoadditives concentration.
Keywords: finite element method; heat transfer; numerical simulations; square cavity; ternary hybrid nanofluid.