Mixed convective ferrofluid flow through a corrugated channel with wall-mounted porous blocks under an alternating magnetic field

Abstract

We examine the mixed convective flow of water-based magnetite (Fe3O4) ferrofluid through a sinusoidally-corrugated channel. Two porous blocks are mounted on heated sections of the channel walls, and a non-uniform alternating magnetic field is generated by two current-carrying wires that are placed at fixed positions on the outside of the channel. We employ a two-phase model that considers thermophoretic and Brownian motion effects on the distribution of magnetite nanoparticles within the ferrofluid. The mixed finite element method with P2−P1 Taylor-Hood elements is used to obtain a numerical solution for the governing equations of the problem. The influence of Darcy number, porous block thickness, wall amplitude, Grashof number, Eckert number and Reynolds number on the ferrofluid flow, heat transfer, concentration distribution of nanoparticles and pressure drop within the channel are discussed herein.