Numerical Study of MHD Free Convection in a Packed Bed Square Enclosure Using Local Thermal Non-Equilibrium (LTNE) Model

In the present study, natural convection of fluid in a square packed bed enclosure is investigated numerically using a uniform magnetic field. The geometry model is heated from left-hand side vertical wall and cooled from opposite wall with adiabatic condition at both the top and bottom walls. Normally to this enclosure an electric coil was set to generate a uniform magnetic field. The Brinkman–Forchheimer extended Darcy model was used to solve the momentum equations, while the energy equations for fluid and solid phase were solved using the local thermal non-equilibrium (LTNE) model. Computations are performed for a range of the Darcy number from 10-5 to10-1, the porosity from 0.3 to 0.9, and Hartmann number from 0 to 75. The results showed that both the strength of applied magnetic field and the packed bed characteristics have significant effect on the flow field and heat transfer.