Numerical Investigation on Heat and Flow Characteristics of Temperature-Sensitive Ferrofluid in a Square Cavity

Abstract

The objective of this paper is numerically to study the heat and flow characteristics of temperature-sensitive ferrofluid in the square cavity with and without the magnetic intensity. The numerical model was developed to predict the behavior of the ferrofluid using finite element method (FEM) and showed good agreement with the existing data within 5% at all Rayleigh number ranges from 103 to 106. Natural convection and heat transfer characteristics of the ferrofluids within the tested cavity were found to depend on both magnetic intensity and magnetic volume fractions of magnetite. In addition, the mean Nusselt numbers and mean velocity of the ferrofluid in a square cavity were increased with the rise of the magnetic intensities and increased by 23.2% and 143.7%, respectively, at both magnetic intensity of H = 10000 A/m and the elapsed time of t = 30000 seconds.