Turbulent Lorentz heat flow visualization in radiative boundary layer regime

Abstract

Modern nuclear energy systems often employ the magneto-hydrodynamic and feature radiative heat transfer. Motivated by studying the near-wall transport phenomena in such applications, the present article examines the simultaneous influence of thermal radiative flux and magneto-hydrodynamics on two-dimensional electrically conducting natural convective turbulent heat transfer about a vertical surface under a transverse static magnetic field using the low Reynolds number kinetic energy and dissipation (k – ε) model. An optimized Crank–Nicolson finite difference method is applied to solve the nonlinear and coupled system of Reynolds-averaged boundary layer equations. Numerical computations are conducted to visualize the streamlines and heatlines in laminar and turbulent regimes via mathematical stream and heat functions based on the Bejan approach. A detailed parametric study of the effects of the magnetic field, radiative flux, and turbulent Reynolds number on flow average velocity, temperature, kinetic energy, and dissipation rate is conducted. The simulations reveal that an increase in the magnetic field intensity reduces the average velocity and dissipation rate, whereas an increase in thermal radiation decreases the time mean temperature. The study also includes contour plots of turbulence energy and dissipation rate, along with skin friction coefficient and Nusselt number. The obtained numerical outcomes are compared to previous literature, and a good agreement is found.