MHD natural convection in a square porous cavity filled with a water-based magnetic fluid in the presence of geothermal viscosity

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is a numerical analysis of natural convection in a square porous cavity filled with a water-based magnetic fluid of geothermal viscosity under the effect of inclined uniform magnetic field.Design/methodology/approachThe domain of interest includes the square porous cavity filled with a water-based magnetic fluid (W40). Horizontal walls are supposed to be adiabatic, while right vertical wall is kept at constant low temperature and left vertical wall is kept at constant high temperature. An inclined uniform magnetic field affects the fluid flow and heat transfer inside the cavity. The viscosity of the working fluid is proportional to the linearly decreasing function of depth (vertical coordinate) and inversely proportional to the linear function of temperature. It is assumed in the analysis that the flow is laminar. The fluid is Newtonian and the Boussinesq approximation is valid. The governing equations have been discretized using the finite difference method with the uniform grid. Simulations have been carried out for different values of the Rayleigh number, Hartmann number, Darcy number, magnetic field inclination angle and viscosity variation parameters.FindingsIt has been revealed that an increase in the viscosity parameters leads to the heat transfer enhancement and convective flow intensification. At the same time, this intensification is more essential for high values of the Rayleigh number.Originality/valueThe originality of this work is to analyze MHD natural convection in a square porous cavity filled with a water-based magnetic fluid of geothermal viscosity. The results would benefit scientists and engineers to become familiar with the analysis of convective heat and mass transfer in nanofluids, and the way to predict the properties of nanofluid convective flow in advanced technical systems, in industrial sectors including transportation, power generation, chemical sectors and electronics.