Influence of oriented magnetic field on natural convection in an equilateral triangular enclosure filled with water- and kerosene-based ferrofluids using a two-component nonhomogeneous thermal equilibrium model

Abstract

Abstract In this paper, hydromagnetic natural convection heat transfer in an equilateral triangular enclosure filled with water- and kerosene-based ferrofluids has been analyzed using a two-component non-homogeneous thermal equilibrium model. The enclosure is permeated by an inclined magnetic field of having uniform strength. The effects of Brownian motion and thermophoresis of the nanoparticles are incorporated into the ferrofluid model. The Galerkin weighted residual finite-element method has been employed to solve the governing nondimensional partial differential equations. Fe3O4-water and Co-kerosene ferrofluids have been used for the present investigation. The effects of various model parameters such as Rayleigh number, Hartmann number, and inclination angle of the magnetic field on the streamlines, isotherms, and isoconcentrations have been displayed graphically. In addition, the heat transfer augmentation for various combinations of model parameters have been done in light of the average Nusselt number from the bottom heated wall. The results indicate that increment in the magnetic field reduces the heat transfer rate, whereas increment in the magnetic field inclination angle augments the heat transfer rate significantly. The results further indicate that there exists a strong interaction between cobalt and kerosene in the presence of magnetic field which can be utilized efficiently for desired heat transfer augmentation in engineering problems.