Numerical investigation of the nanoparticles nature effect on the MHD behavior in a square cavity with a metallic obstacle

Abstract

In this paper, a study is conducted to determine numerically the effect of the nanoparticles nature (Al2O3, CuO, and Fe3O4) on the thermo-magnetohydrodynamic behavior of a nanofluid in a square cavity with a circular obstacle. The left wall of this cavity is movable and provided with a cold temperature (Tc) and the right wall is exposed to a hot temperature (Th). However, the upper and lower walls are considered adiabatic. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the effect of aluminum dioxide, copper oxide, and iron trioxide nanoparticles on the thermal and hydrodynamic behavior under the influence of different volume fractions(0 ≤ φ ≤ 0.1), different Hartmann numbers (0 ≤ Ha ≤ 75) and Richardson number (0 ≤ Ri ≤5). The system of governing équations was solved by the finite element method adopting the Galerkine discretization. The obtained results showed that the CuO nanoparticles improve the heat transfer at the fluid and obstacle, in addition, the increase of Hartmann number reduces the heat capacity, especially with the use of Fe3O4 nanoparticles. This study falls within the context of improving the cooling rate of industrial equipment.