Magnetohydrodynamic convection behaviours of nanofluids in non‐square enclosures: A comprehensive review

Abstract

Nanofluid is a special thermal transport medium that has recently received unprecedented attention due to its improved heat transfer performance compared with conventional fluids. Numerous researches have been conducted on the natural convection characteristics of different nanofluids in various configurations of cavities due to the enormous applications of natural convection in environmental, petrochemical, medical, aviation and space technology, industrial, and many more areas. This paper presented a comprehensive review on the influence of different types, magnitudes, and orientations of magnetic field on the hydrodynamic natural convection heat and flow characteristics of diverse nanofluids in specialised non‐square enclosures, which was lacking in the public domain. The emergence of a magnetic field as a tool for the manipulation of convective flow and heat transfer behaviours of nanofluids in non‐square enclosures has been extensively reviewed. The influence of several variables such as controlling parameters, heat distribution methods, thermal and concentration boundary conditions, magnetic field types, numerical methods, correlation types, nanofluid types, heaters types, numbers and length, and slip conditions, on the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) natural convection flow and heat transfer behaviours of nanofluid in non‐square cavities was brought to the spotlight for discussion. The concepts of bioconvection, micro‐polar nanofluid, bio‐nanofluid (green nanofluid), ionic nanofluid, and hybrid nanofluid were also discussed for the first time in relation to natural convection. Special cases of MHD natural convection in non‐square cavities involving hybrid nanofluids and micro‐polar nanofluids were also presented herein. The application of several numerical methods (which was the major approach studied so far) to investigate the hydromagnetic behaviours of nanofluids in non‐square cavities was the focus of this work.