Partial magnetic field and segmental heating effects on hybrid nanofluidic convection in a tilted porous wavy cavity

Abstract

The present study investigates the magneto-thermal convective process in an oriented porous wavy-walled geometry filled with Cu–Al2O3/water hybrid nanofluid, which is partially heated from the upper and lower walls under a partially active magnetic field. The sidewalls are cooled, while heating is carried out from the upper or lower walls or both. The flow-physics are greatly affected by the segmental heating and their positions, sidewall curvature, spatially active partial magnetic field, and all the flow-controlling variables. The transport equations are solved using the finite volume technique with SIMPLE and TDMA solver-based computing code. The hydro-thermal behavior of the thermal system is evaluated for several important variables, such as the Darcy-Rayleigh number, Hartmann number, Darcy number, concentration of hybrid nanofluid, partially active magnetic field strength, inclination and positions, geometry orientation, length of segmented heaters, and their position. It is revealed that the overall thermal transport phenomena can be precisely controlled by adjusting the position and dimension of segmented heaters, the active zone and direction of the imposed magnetizing field, and the cavity angle. Both the cavity angle and magnetic field angle of 90° enhance heat transfer. Top wall heating produces weak circulation. In the case of position study for segmental heating, the sidewall position is the best location for maximum heat transfer. The circulation strength and heat transfer are maximum for the bottom heated scenario, and the transfer enhancement goes up to 132.91%. In addition, an entropy generation analysis is conducted to understand the order of thermal, viscous, and magnetic effects on irreversibility production. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach in optimizing the system's performance.