INVESTIGATION ON THE EFFECT OF OSCILLATING MAGNETIC FIELDS ON FLUID FLOW AND FORCED-CONVECTION HEAT TRANSFER AROUND A SPHERE

Abstract

In this article, the heat transfer of magnetic nanofluids over a sphere has been considered in the presence of an external oscillating uniform magnetic field for a wide range of Reynolds number values (Re). This study incorporates the effect of magnetic permeability and purposes the optimal operating condition for the first time. The significant difference between the magnetic property of the nanofluid and the heated sphere makes a non-uniform magnetic field around the sphere resulting in a significant alteration in the distribution of velocity and temperature around sphere. The variations of average Nusselt number (Nu_avg) and drag coefficient (C_d) have been studied to demonstrate the influence of magnetic field frequency and intensity, Re, and the relative magnetic permeability of the sphere. It has been found that the magnetic field causes the vortices to appear or grow behind the sphere. This leads to fluid separation even for low Re values in the presence of magnetic field. Local Nu value is minimum at the separation point. This point moves towards the front of sphere as the magnetic field intensity increases. These vortices lead to boundary layer distortion, thereby increasing heat-transfer rate and drag force. In addition, the obtained results clearly indicate that there is an optimal frequency at which Nu_avg and C_d can be maximized. The dimensionless optimal frequency (Ωτ) is about 0.6 regardless of Re value or magnetic field intensity. Moreover, the influence of the applied magnetic field is more noticeable for low Re values and/or frequencies near the optimum value. For instance, Nu_avg and C_d increase by 150% and 50%, respectively, for Re value of 30 while they are three times smaller for Re value of 200. Increase in the magnetic permeability of sphere enhances the Nu_avg up to 170% (at Re = 50) close to the optimal frequency, whereas its effect is almost negligible for frequencies far away from the optimal one. Furthermore, the obtained results clearly demonstrate that the heat-transfer increase is much larger than the penalty due to the drag force increase for frequencies close to the optimal value.