NUMERICAL STUDY OF MHD NATURAL CONVECTION LIQUID METAL FLOW AND HEAT TRANSFER IN A WAVY ENCLOSURE USING CVFEM

A comprehensive numerical investigation on natural convection of electrically conducting liquid metal flow and heat transfer characteristics in a wavy enclosure is presented. The control volume-based finite element method (CVFEM) has been adopted to solve numerically the governing conservation equations of mass, momentum, and energy by using a stream function vorticity formulation. Special attention is given to understand the effect of a transverse magnetic field on the heat transfer rate as well as flow configurations with different amplitudes of sinusoidal wall. The numerical procedure in this analysis yields consistent performance over a wide range of parameters; Hartmann number, Ha; Rayleigh number, Ra; dimensionless amplitude of sinusoidal wall, a, and a fixed Prandtl number (Pr = 0.025) for liquid metal. The results obtained are depicted in terms of streamlines and isotherms which show the significant effects of the Hartmann number on the fluid flow and temperature distribution inside the enclosure. It was found that the Nusselt number decreases with increase in the Hartmann number.