Natural convection in a rectangular enclosure in the presence of a magnetic field with uniform heat flux from the side walls

Summary A numerical study is presented for magnetohydrodynamic free convection of an electrically conducting fluid in a two-dimensional rectangular enclosure in which two side walls are maintained at uniform heat flux condition. The horizontal top and bottom walls are thermally insulated. A finite difference scheme comprising of modified ADI (Alternating Direction Implicit) method and SOR (Successive-Over-Relaxation) method is used to solve the governing equations. Computations are carried out over a wide range of Grashof number, Gr and Hartmann number, Ha for an enclosure of aspect ratio 1 and 2. The influences of these parameters on the flow pattern and the associated heat transfer characteristics are discussed. Numerical results show that with the application of an external magnetic field, the temperature and velocity fields are significantly modified. When the Grashof number is low and Hartmann number is high, the central streamlines are elongated and the isotherms are almost parallel representing a conduction state. For sufficiently large magnetic field strength the convection is suppressed for all values of Gr. The average Nusselt number decreases with an increase of Hartmann number and hence a magnetic field can be used as an effective mechanism to control the convection in an enclosure.List of symbols Ar aspect ratio,H/L - B ₀ induction magnetic field - H ₀ magnetic field,H ₀=B ₀/ _m - g gravitational acceleration - Gr Grashof number,gq(L/k)L ³/v ² - H height of the enclosure - Ha Hartmann number, - k thermal conductivity - Nu local Nusselt number - average Nusselt number - p pressure - Pr Prandtl number, / - q heat flux - t time - T dimensionless temperature, (–₀)/q(L/k) - u vertical velocity - U dimensionless vertical velocity,uL/ - v horizontal velocity - V dimensionless horizontal velocity,vL/ - x vertical coordinate - X dimensionless vertical coordinate,x/L - y horizontal coordinate - Y dimensionless horizontal coordinate,y/L - thermal diffusivity - thermal expansion coefficient - temperature - ₀ reference temperature - density - kinematic viscosity - viscosity - _m magnetic permeability - electrical conductivity - stream function - dimensionless stream function, / - dimensionless time,t/L ² - vorticity - dimensionless vorticity, L ²/ - X grid spacing inX-direction - Y grid spacing inY-direction - time increment - ² Laplacian operator