Hydrothermal features of the magnetite nanoparticles on natural convection flow through a square conduit by using the finite element method

Abstract

Ferrofluids are made through the suspension of magnetic nanoparticles which are commonly used for the treatment of hyperthermia, malignant tumor treatment, magnetic cell separation, etc. These nanoparticles provide satisfactory results for the heat transport phenomena. Motivated by the applications of these nanoparticles, this study is performed for water-based nanofluid with a different type of magnetic nanoparticles for renewable energy and the development of the advanced cooling process of the radiator. Further, this study also talks about the impact of magnetized nanoparticles on natural convection flow occupied in a square cavity. The nanosized magnetic particles are mixed up in water to make a more convective flow. In this computational study, the momentum equation is updated with magnetohydrodynamics terms. The mathematical problem is achieved in the form of nonlinear complex partial differential equations which are simulated by using the renowned Galerkin finite element technique. The numerical code is validated with the previous study on the natural convection flow of viscous fluid in a square cavity and the verification procedure verified the good accuracy of the applied developed numerical code. The impact of the Hartmann number, Rayleigh number and the volume friction coefficient is discussed through contours and graphs. It is observed that nanofluids have more capacity to store energy as compared to regular fluids due to superior thermal transport properties. Moreover, the cobalt oxide (Co3[Formula: see text] nanoparticles provide a greater heat transfer rate due to greater thermal conductivity as compared to other nanoparticles cobalt ferrite (CoFe2[Formula: see text], magnetite (Fe3[Formula: see text] and manganese–zinc–ferrite (Mn–Zn–Fe2[Formula: see text]. The heat transfer rate is increased by 30% for cobalt oxide, 18% for magnetite, 15% for manganese–zinc–ferrite and 12% for cobalt ferrite, respectively. Hence, the cobalt oxide nanoparticles which have a greater heat transfer rate can contribute to solar energy engineering and the advanced cooling process of the radiator.