Numerical Simulation of MHD Natural Convection Flow Within Porous Trapezoidal Cavity With Heated Triangular Obstacle

Abstract

A steady laminar two-dimensional finite element based Galerkin weighted residual numerical approach (GWRNA) has been adopted to solve magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) natural convective flow filled with porous medium in a trapezoidal cavity with various aspect ratio of heated triangular obstacle $$ (1/3 \le AR \le 1) $$ . The boundary location of the cavity consists of non-uniform heating of bottom wall whilst the two vertical walls are maintained at a cold temperature and the top wall is thermal insulated. For the simulation purpose, wide range of parameters, such as, Hartmann number (Ha = 50), Prandtl number (0.026 ≤ Pr ≤ 1000), Rayleigh number (103 ≤ Ra ≤ 106) and Darcy number (10−5 ≤ Da ≤ 10−1) are used in the cavity with various AR. The study demonstrated that the aforementioned parameters have strong influence on the stream functions and isotherms for different AR. A stronger flow circulation is observed for higher Ra and Da. Besides these, a symmetry for fluid flow simulations and isotherm contours are viewed. The result too unveils that the heat transfer rates as well as local and average Nusselt numbers strongly depend on various AR and abovementioned parameters.