Analyzing overall thermal behaviour of conjugate MHD free convection in L-shaped chamber with a thick fin

Abstract

This study examines the conjugate MHD free convection in an L-shaped chamber with a thick fin attached to one of its cold walls. The chamber's left and bottom parts have hot walls, whereas the ambient condition is maintained at the upper-right sides of the L-shaped chamber. A heat-conducting solid rectangular fin is vertically attached to the top of the mid-section of the chamber. The heat and fluid flow governed by heat energy and Navier-Stokes equations are numerically simulated with the help of finite element analysis. The influences of different governing and geometrical parameters such as Hartmann number (0 ≤ Ha ≤ 30), Rayleigh number (103 ≤ Ra ≤ 106), fin thickness (0.100 ≤ t/L ≤ 0.175, where L is the reference length of the chamber) and fin height (0.1 ≤ d/L ≤ 0.3) on the overall thermal characteristics of the system have been observed. The qualitative outcomes of this research are exhibited in the forms of streamline, isotherm, and heatline plots. The quantitative findings are presented utilizing the mean Nusselt number, the overall thermal performance ratio, and the average fluid temperature. These results confirm that the overall thermal improvement of the chamber due to the conjugate effects of heat transfer increases with increasing Hartmann number for a fin with the highest thickness and the shortest length. The overall thermal performance ratio increases by a maximum of 39.59% for an increase in Hartmann number from 0 to 30. Similarly, higher thickness and shorter length improve the overall thermal performance ratio by 45.18% and 415.06%, respectively.

Keywords

• Thick fin
• Hartmann number
• Magneto-hydrodynamic
• Overall thermal performance
• Conjugate heat transfer