Numerical Simulation of Hydromagnetic Natural Convection Flow in a Grooved Enclosure Filled with CuO–Water Nanofluid Considering Brownian Motion

The influence of magnetic field on natural convection flow and heat transfer in a grooved enclosure filled with nanofluid has been analyzed numerically in the present study. The vertical and grooved walls of the enclosure are kept at constant low temperature while the top horizontal walls are thermally insulated and different thermal boundary conditions are set to the bottom horizontal walls. The fluid within the enclosure is initially assumed to be at rest and the initial temperature of the nanofluid is considered at low temperature. The governing equations representing the flow model are converted into dimensionless form using appropriate transformations and then solved with finite element method based on Galerkin weighted residual technique. The effects of pertinent parameters have been displayed graphically and discussed in terms of streamlines, isotherms, average Nusselt number, average temperature, mean velocity and mid height velocities, respectively. The results indicate that the heat transfer rate in terms of average Nusselt number increases with the increase in Rayleigh number and solid volume fraction of nanoparticales but decreases for increasing strength of magnetic field. Moreover, it is also found that the various thermal boundary conditions have significant effects on the flow and thermal fields inside the enclosure. In addition, the heat transfer rate accelerates significantly in presence of square grooves. Comparisons with previously published results are performed and the results are found to be in excellent agreement.