Magnetohydrodynamic Effect on Thermal Transport by Silver Nanofluid Flow in Enclosure with Central and Lower Heat Sources

A numerical investigation into the magneto-convection heat transfer performance of Ag-based nanofluid (i.e., silver nanoparticles dispersed in fluid) filled square enclosure containing a thin central heater and a lower heated wall section is performed. The analysis focuses particularly on the effects of the magnetic field strength, central heater orientation and length, lower heated wall section length, Rayleigh number, and Ag nanoparticle volume fraction on the average Nusselt number along the cool, vertical sidewalls of the enclosure. It is found that the heat transfer performance improves as the lengths of the central heater and lower heated wall section increase. Also, the average Nusselt number increases given a vertical orientation of the central heater. Regardless of the heater orientation, the heat transfer performance decreases with increasing magnetic field strength. As Ag nanoparticle volume fraction increases, the average Nusselt number increases with increasing values of Rayleigh number. Finally, the heat transfer performance improves for increasing nanoparticle volume fraction (0.00, 0.03, 0.06, 0.09) at high Rayleigh numbers of 10⁶ and 10⁷.