Magnetohydrodynamic Natural Convection in a Square Enclosure with Four Circular Cylinders Positioned at Different Rectangular Locations

Abstract

ABSTRACTWe deploy a finite volume numerical computation to investigate the two-dimensional hydromagnetic natural convection in a cooled square enclosure in the presence of four inner heated circular cylinders with identical shape. The inner circular cylinders are placed in a rectangular array with equal distance away from each other within the enclosure and moving along the diagonals of the enclosure. All the walls of the enclosure are kept isothermal with temperatures less than that of the cylinders. A uniform magnetic field is applied along the horizontal direction normal to the vertical wall. All solid walls are assumed electrically insulated. Simulations are performed for a range of the controlling parameters such as the Rayleigh number 103 to 106, Hartmann number 0 to 50, and the dimensionless horizontal and vertical distance from the center of a cylinder to center of another cylinder 0.3 to 0.7. The study specifically aims to understand the effects of the location of the cylinders in the enclosure on the magnetoconvective transport, when they moved along the diagonals of the enclosure. It is observed that the unsteady behavior of the flow and thermal fields at relatively larger Rayleigh numbers and for some cylinder position are suppressed by imposition of the magnetic field. The heat transfer strongly depends on the position of the cylinders and the strength of the magnetic field. Hence, by controlling the position of the objects and the magnetic field strength, a significant control on the hydrodynamic and thermal transport can be achieved.