Magneto-natural convection in square cavities with a source-sink pair on different walls

Abstract

Magnetohydrodynamic natural convection fluid flow and heat transfer in a square enclosure with a pair of source and sink on its walls, filled with liquid Gallium fluid with Prandtl number of 0.02 has been investigated numerically. The heat source and heat sink are maintained at a constant temperature T_{h} and T_{c} , respectively with T_{h} > T_{c} . By variation of relative location of the heat source and sink on the walls of the enclosure, five different cases are generated. The governing equations written in terms of the primitive variables are solved numerically using the finite volume method and the SIMPLER algorithm. Using the developed code, a parametric study is performed, and the effects of the Rayleigh number, the Hartman number, and the locations of the source and sink on the fluid flow and heat transfer inside the enclosure are investigated. The results show that the flow and temperature distributions inside the enclosure are affected by the strength of the magnetic field, the Rayleigh number, and the relative location of the heat source and sink. The magnetic field decreases the rate of heat transfer, suppresses the convection heat transfer, and tends to slows down the flow velocity in the cavity. Moreover in some cases the magnetic field changes the flow pattern inside the enclosure.