HEAT FUNCTION ANALYTICS OF CONJUGATE NATURAL CONVECTION HEAT TRANSFER IN PARTITIONED ENCLOSURE FILLED WITH HYBRID NANOFLUID UNDER MAGNETIC FIELDS

The need for suitable control of fluid flow and heat transfer for enhanced performance has led to the use of magnetic fields, appropriate design and sizing of devices, and the right choice of flow governing parameters for many industrial processes. This study investigates the effects of uniform magnetic field on heat flow induced by buoyancy in a square enclosure partitioned into two cavities with a conducting solid body. The cavities are filled with hybrid nanofluid composed from water and equal proportion of Cu and Al2O3 nanoparticles. The problem is analyzed numerically by solving the momentum, energy, and heat function equations with the finite difference method. The governing parameters including the Rayleigh (Ra) and Hartmann (Ha) numbers, solid concentration of the hybrid nanoparticles (phi), and the ratio of the thermal conductivity of the hybrid nanofluid to that of the solid conducting partition wall (k*) are varied in the ranges of 103 <= Ra <= 108, 0 <= Ha <= 150, 0 <= phi <= 0.06, and 1 <= k* <= 20, respectively. The results show that the average temperature increases with the increase in the Ra and reduces with the increase in the values of the Ha, k*, and phi in the left cavity of the partition, but the reversed trend was obtained in the right cavity. The average heat function in the left cavity reduces with Ra and Ha while the overall fluid and heat flow are enhanced with the increase in the Ra and k* and retarded by increasing Ha. These results can be used as baseline data for the design and appropriate sizing of the heat transfer devices.