MHD mixed convection flow through a diverging channel with heated circular obstacle

Abstract

A numerical study of steady MHD mixed convection heat transfer and fluid flow through a diverging channel with heated circular obstacle is carried out in this paper. The circular obstacle placed at the centre of the channel is hot with temperature Th. The top and bottom walls are non-adiabatic. The basic nonlinear governing partial differential equations are transformed into dimensionless ordinary differential equations using similarity transformations. These equations have been solved numerically for different values of the governing parameters, namely Reynolds number (Re), Hartmann number (Ha), Richardson number (Ri) and Prandtl number (Pr) using finite element method. The streamlines, isotherms, average Nusselt number and average temperature of the fluid for various relevant dimensionless parameters are displayed graphically. The study revealed that the flow and thermal fields in the diverging channel depend significantly on the heated body. In addition, it is observed that the magnetic field acts to increase the rate of heat transfer within the channel.