Numerical Study of 3D MHD Mixed Convection and Entropy Generation in Trapezoidal Porous Enclosure Filled with a Hybrid Nanofluid: Effect of Zigzag Wall and Spinning Inner Cylinder

Abstract

A numerical study was performed to analyze the impact of the combination of several factors on heat transfer rate, flow behavior, and entropy generation in a hybrid nanofluid occupying a porous trapezoid enclosure containing a rotating inner tube. The governing equations were discretized and solved using the Finite Element Method using Comsol multiphysics. The effects of the Darcy and Hartman number, nanoparticle volume fraction (from 0 to 6%), the utilization of various zigzag patterns of the hot wall, and the rotation speed of the inner tube (Ω = 100. 250 and 500) are illustrated and discussed in this work. The outputs reveal that flow intensity has an inverse relationship with Hartman number and a direct relationship with the Darcy number and the velocity of the inner tube, especially at high numbers of undulations of the zigzag hot wall (N = 4); also, intensification of heat transfer occurs with increasing nanoparticle volume fraction, Darcy number and velocity of the inner tube. In addition, entropy generation is strongly affected by the mentioned factors, where increasing the nanoparticle concentration augments the thermal entropy generation and reduces the friction entropy generation; furthermore, the same influence can be obtained by increasing the Hartman number or decreasing the Darcy number. However, the lowest entropy generation was found for the case of Ø = 0, Ha = 0 and Da = 0.01.