Natural convection of nanofluids in an enclosure between a circular and a sinusoidal cylinder in the presence of magnetic field

In this study natural convection heat transfer of Cu–water nanofluid in a cold outer circular enclosure containing a hot inner sinusoidal circular cylinder in the presence of horizontal magnetic field is investigated numerically using the Control Volume based Finite Element Method (CVFEM). Both circular enclosure and inner cylinder are maintained at constant temperature. The governing equations of fluid motion and heat transfer in their vorticity stream function form are used to simulate the fluid flow and heat transfer. The effective thermal conductivity and viscosity of nanofluid are calculated using the Maxwell–Garnetts (MG) and Brinkman models, respectively. The calculations were performed for different governing parameters such as the Hartmann number, Rayleigh number, values of the number of undulations of the inner cylinder and nanoparticle volume fraction. The results indicate that in the absence of magnetic field, enhancement ratio decreases as Rayleigh number increases while an opposite trend is observed in the presence of magnetic field. Also it is found that the average Nusselt number is an increasing function of nanoparticle volume fraction, the number of undulations and Rayleigh numbers while it is a decreasing function of Hartmann number.