Energy xxx (2014) 1e11

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Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/energy

Ferrohydrodynamic and magnetohydrodynamic effects on ferrouid

ow and convective heat transfer
Mohsen Sheikholeslami*, Davood Domiri Ganji
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Babol University of Technology, Babol, Iran

a r t i c l e i n f o

a b s t r a c t

Article history:
Received 8 May 2014
Received in revised form
25 July 2014
Accepted 29 July 2014
Available online xxx

In this paper, inuence of an external magnetic eld on ferrouid ow and heat transfer in a semi
annulus enclosure with sinusoidal hot wall is investigated. The governing equations which are derived by
considering the both effects of FHD (Ferrohydrodynamic) and MHD (Magnetohydrodynamic) are solved
via CVFEM (Control Volume based Finite Element Method). The effects of Rayleigh number, nanoparticle
volume fraction, Magnetic number arising from FHD and Hartmann number arising from MHD on the
ow and heat transfer characteristics have been examined. Results show that Nusselt number increases
with augment of Rayleigh number and nanoparticle volume fraction but it decreases with increase of
Hartmann number. Magnetic number has different effect on Nusselt number corresponding to Rayleigh
number. Also it can be found that for low Rayleigh number, enhancement in heat transfer is an increasing
function of Hartmann number and decreasing function of Magnetic number while opposite trend is
observed for high Rayleigh number.
2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
CVFEM (Control Volume based Finite
Element Method)
Joule heating
Ferrouid
FHD (Ferrohydrodynamic)
MHD (Magnetohydrodynamic)
Free convection

1. Introduction
The CVFEM (Control Volume based Finite Element Method) uses
the benets of both nite volume and nite element methods for
simulation of multi-physics problems in complex geometries [1]
and [2]. Sheikholeslami et al. [3] studied the problem of free convection between a circular enclosure and a sinusoidal cylinder.
They concluded that streamlines, isotherms, the number, size and
formation of the cells inside the enclosure strongly depend on the
Rayleigh number, values of amplitude and the number of undulations of the enclosure. Sheikholeslami et al. [4] used heatline
analysis to simulate two phase nanouid ow and heat transfer.
Their results indicated that the average Nusselt number decreases
as buoyancy ratio number increases until it reaches a minimum
value and then starts increasing. MHD (magnetohydrodynamic)
effect on natural convection heat transfer in an enclosure lled with
nanouid was studied by Sheikholeslami et al. [5]. Their results
indicated that Nusselt number is an increasing function of buoyancy ratio number but it is a decreasing function of Lewis number
and Hartmann number. Sheikholeslami et al. [6] used CVFEM to
simulate the effect of magnetic eld on free convection in an inclined half-annulus enclosure lled with Cuewater nanouid. Their
* Corresponding author. Tel./fax: 98 911 3968030.
E-mail addresses: m.sheikholeslami1367@gmail.com, mohsen.sheikholeslami@
yahoo.com (M. Sheikholeslami).

results showed that Hartmann number and the inclination angle of

the enclosure can be considered as control parameters at different
Rayleigh number. Also this method is used in order to simulate
different scientic problems [7e15].
Cooling capabilities of heat transfer equipments have been
constrained because of the low thermal conductivity of conventional heat transfer uids. However, it is well known that, metals in
solid form heavy orders-of-magnitude higher thermal conductivities than those of uids. Therefore, the thermal conductivities of
uids that contain suspended solid metallic particles could be expected to be signicantly higher than those of conventional heat
transfer uids. The goal of nanouid is to achieve the highest
possible thermal properties at the smallest possible concentrations
by uniform dispersion and stable suspension of nano particles
(preferably <10 nm) in host uids. Nanotechnology provides new
area of research to process and produce materials with average
crystallite sizes below 100 nm called nano materials. Sheikholeslami and Ganji [16] investigated two phase modeling of nanouid in a rotating system with permeable sheet. They found that
Nusselt number has direct relationship with Reynolds number and
injection parameter while it has reverse relationship with Rotation
parameter, Schmidt number, Thermophoretic parameter and
Brownian parameter. Asymmetric laminar ow and heat transfer of
nanouid between contracting rotating disks was studied by
Hatami et al. [17]. Their results indicated that temperature prole

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2014.07.089
0360-5442/ 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Please cite this article in press as: Sheikholeslami M, Ganji DD, Ferrohydrodynamic and magnetohydrodynamic effects on ferrouid ow and
convective heat transfer, Energy (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2014.07.089

M. Sheikholeslami, D.D. Ganji / Energy xxx (2014) 1e11

Nomenclature

X,Y

A
B
Cp
Ec
En
Grf
!
g
Hx,Hy
H
Ha
k
K0
Ls

Greek symbols
z
angle measured from the lower right plane
a
thermal diffusivity
f
volume fraction
g
magnetic eld strength at the source
1
temperature number(T1/DT)
2
Curie temperature number Tc0 =DT
s
electrical conductivity
m
dynamic viscosity
m0
magnetic permeability of vacuum(4p107 Tm/A)
y
kinematic viscosity
j&J
stream function & dimensionless stream function
Q
dimensionless temperature
r
uid density
b
thermal expansion coefcient
u, U
vorticity & dimensionless vorticity

MnF
M
Nu
Pr
r
Ra
T
Tc0
u,v
U,V
x,y

amplitude
magnetic induction (m0H)
specic heat at constant pressure
Eckert number ((mfaf)/[(rCP)fDTL2])
heat transfer enhancement
Grashof number gbf DTrout  rin 3 =y2f
gravitational acceleration vector
components of the magnetic eld intensity
the magnetic eld strength q
Hartmann number m0 H0 L sf =mf
thermal conductivity
constant parameter
gap between inner and outer boundary of the
enclosure L rout  rin
0
Magnetic number arising from FHD (m0H20K (Th  Tc)
2
L /(mfaf))
magnetization K 0 HTc0  T
Nusselt number
Prandtl number(yf/af)
non-dimensional radial distance
Rayleigh number (gbfDT(rout  rin)3/afyf)
uid temperature
Curie temperature
velocity components in the x-direction and y-direction
dimensionless velocity components in the X-direction
and Y-direction
space coordinates

becomes more at near the middle of two disks with increase of

injection but opposite trend is observed with increase of expansion
ratio. Nanouid convective heat transfer becomes a popular topic in
last decade [18e38].
Magnetic nanouid (Ferrouid) is a magnetic colloidal suspension consisting of base liquid and magnetic nanoparticles with a
size range of 5e15 nm in diameter coated with a surfactant layer.
Jue [39] used semi implicit nite element method in order to
simulate magnetic gradient and thermal buoyancy induced cavity
ferrouid ow. Their results showed the ow strength increases
with the strengthening magnetic eld. Numerical analysis of the
heat transfer enhancement and uid ow characteristics of a
rotating cylinder under the inuence of magnetic dipole in the
backward facing step geometry was conducted by Selimefendigil
and Oztop [40]. They found that the effect of cylinder rotation on
the local Nusselt number distribution is more pronounced at low
Reynolds number. Nanjundappa et al. [41] studied the effect of MFD
(magnetic eld dependent) viscosity on the onset of ferro convection in a ferrouid saturated horizontal porous layer. They showed
the nonlinearity of uid magnetization has no inuence on the
stability of the system. The vortex dynamics behind various magnetic obstacles and characteristics of heat transfer were investigated by Zhang and Huang [42]. They found that the pressure drop
penalty was not increasingly dependent on interaction parameter.
Azizian et al. [43] studied the effect of an external magnetic eld on
the convective heat transfer and pressure drop of magnetite
nanouids under laminar ow regime conditions. They showed
that the mechanisms for heat transfer enhancement are postulated
to be accumulation of particles near the magnets. Natural convection in a rectangular enclosure containing an oval-shaped heat
source and lled with Fe3O4/water nanouid was investigated by
Moraveji and Hejazian [44]. Free convection of ferrouid in a cavity

dimensionless space coordinates

Subscripts
c
cold
h
hot
ave
average
loc
local
nf
nanouid
f
base uid
s
solid particles
in
inner
out
outer

heated from below in the presence of magnetic eld was studied by

Sheikholeslami and Gorji [45]. They found that particles with a
smaller size have better ability to dissipate heat, and a larger volume fraction would provide a stronger driving force which leads to
increase in temperature prole.
Parametric analysis and optimization of entropy generation in
unsteady MHD ow over a stretching rotating disk was investigated
by Rashidi et al. [46]. Rahman et al. [47] studied the augmentation
of natural convection heat transfer in triangular shape solar collector by utilizing water based nanouids having a corrugated
bottom wall. They found that both Grashof number and solid volume fraction have signicant inuence on streamlines and isotherms in the enclosure. The effects of using different geometrical
parameters with the combination of nanouid on heat transfer and
uid ow characteristics in a HCTHE (helically coiled tube heat
exchanger) were numerically investigated by Mohammed and
Narrein [48].They found that counter-ow conguration produced
better results as compared to parallel-ow conguration. Free
convection heat transfer in a concentric annulus between a cold
square and heated elliptic cylinders in presence of magnetic eld
was investigated by Sheikholeslami et al. [49]. They found that the
enhancement in heat transfer increases as Hartmann number increases but it decreases with increase of Rayleigh number. Rashidi
et al. [50] studied the effects of magnetic interaction number, slip
factor and relative temperature difference on velocity and temperature proles as well as entropy generation in MHD (magnetohydrodynamic) ow of a uid with variable properties over a
rotating disk. Ellahi [51] studied the MHD ow of non-Newtonian
nanouid in a pipe. He observed that the MHD parameter decreases the uid motion and the velocity prole is larger than that
of temperature prole even in the presence of variable viscosities.
Rashidi et al. [52] considered the analysis of the second law of

Please cite this article in press as: Sheikholeslami M, Ganji DD, Ferrohydrodynamic and magnetohydrodynamic effects on ferrouid ow and
convective heat transfer, Energy (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2014.07.089

M. Sheikholeslami, D.D. Ganji / Energy xxx (2014) 1e11

Fig. 1. (a)Geometry and the boundary conditions; (b) the mesh of enclosure considered in this work; (c) A sample triangular element and its corresponding control volume.

thermodynamics applied to an electrically conducting incompressible nanouid uid owing over a porous rotating disk. They
concluded that using magnetic rotating disk drives has important
applications in heat transfer enhancement in renewable energy
systems. Sheikholeslami et al. [53] studied the magnetic eld effect
on CuOewater nanouid ow and heat transfer in an enclosure
which is heated from below. They showed that effect of Hartmann
number and heat source length is more pronounced at high Rayleigh number. Sheikholeslami et al. [54] studied the problem of
MHD free convection in an eccentric semi-annulus lled with
nanouid. They showed that Nusselt number decreases with increase of position of inner cylinder at high Rayleigh number. Lattice
Boltzmann Method was used to investigate magnetohydrodynamic

ow utilizing Cuewater nanouid in a concentric annulus by

Sheikholeslami et al. [55].Their results proved that enhancement
ratio increases with decrease of Rayleigh number and it increases
with augment of Hartmann number. Recently, effect of magnetic
eld on nanouid ow and heat transfer has been investigated by
several authors [56e61].
The main purpose of the present work is to study ferrouid ow
and heat transfer in an enclosure with sinusoidal hot wall in
presence of an external magnetic eld. CVFEM is applied to solve
this problem. The numerical investigation is carried out for
different governing parameters such as the Rayleigh number,
nanoparticle volume fraction, Magnetic number arising from FHD
(Ferrohydrodynamics) and Hartmann number arising from MHD.

Please cite this article in press as: Sheikholeslami M, Ganji DD, Ferrohydrodynamic and magnetohydrodynamic effects on ferrouid ow and
convective heat transfer, Energy (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2014.07.089

M. Sheikholeslami, D.D. Ganji / Energy xxx (2014) 1e11

Fig. 2. Contours of the (a) magnetic eld strength H; (b) magnetic eld intensity component in x direction Hx; (c) magnetic eld intensity component in y direction Hy.

magnetic eld strength are shown in Fig. 2. In this study magnetic

source is located at (0.05cols, 0.5rows).

2. Geometry denition and boundary conditions

The physical model along with the important geometrical
parameters and the mesh of the enclosure used in the present
CVFEM program are shown in Fig. 1. The inner and outer walls are
maintained at constant temperatures Th and Tc, respectively. The
shape of inner cylinder prole is assumed to mimic the following
pattern.

r rin A cosNz

(1)

in which rin is the base circle radius, rout is the radius of outer
cylinder, A and N are amplitude and number of undulations,
respectively, z is the rotation angle. In this study A and N equal to
0.2 and 4, respectively. For the expression of the magnetic eld
strength it can be considered that the magnetic source represents
a magnetic wire placed vertically to the xey plane at the
pointa; b. The components of the magnetic eld intensity
(Hx ; Hy ) and the magnetic eld strength (H) can be considered as
[62]:

g
Hx
2p


2
x  a y  b
2

g
Hy 
2p


yb


2 x  a
x  a y  b

3.1. Problem formulation

The ow is steady, two-dimensional, laminar and incompressible. The magnetic Reynolds number is assumed to be small so that
the induced magnetic eld can be neglected compared to the
applied magnetic eld. Using the Boussinesq approximation, the
governing equations of heat transfer and uid ow for nanouid
can be obtained as follows:

vu vv

0
vx vy

rnf

(5)

!

vu
vu
vp
v2 u v2 u
vH
v
 mnf
 snf B2y u

u
m0 M
vx
vy
vx
vx
vx2 vy2
snf Bx By v
(6)

(2)

!


vv
vv
vp
v2 v v2 v
vH
 mnf
 snf B2x v

m0 M
rnf u v
vx
vy
vy
vy
vx2 vy2
snf Bx By u rnf bnf gT  Tc

(3)

r
H

3. Mathematical modeling and numerical procedure

Hx Hy

g
1
r

2
2p
2
x  a y  b

(7)

(4)

where g the magnetic eld strength at the source (of the wire) and
a; b is the position where the source is located. The contours of the

Table 1
Thermo physical properties of water and nanoparticles [65].

r(kg/m3) Cp(j/kgk) k(W/m.k) b105(K1) dp(nm) s(U,m)1

Pure water
997.1
Fe3O4
5200

4179
670

0.613
6

21
1.3

e
47

0.05
25,000

Please cite this article in press as: Sheikholeslami M, Ganji DD, Ferrohydrodynamic and magnetohydrodynamic effects on ferrouid ow and
convective heat transfer, Energy (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2014.07.089

M. Sheikholeslami, D.D. Ganji / Energy xxx (2014) 1e11

!





2
vT
vT
v2 T v2 T
knf
2 snf uBy  vBx
rCp nf u v
2
vx
vy
vx
vy
!
vM
vH
vH
 m0 T
u
v
vT
vx
vy
(  
 )
 2 
2
vu
vv
vu vv 2

mnf 2
vx
vy
vy vx

Table 3
Comparison of the present results with previous works for different Rayleigh
numbers when Pr 0.7.
Ra

Present

Khanafer et al. [63]

De Vahl Davis [66]

103
104
105

1.1432
2.2749
4.5199

1.118
2.245
4.522

1.118
2.243
4.519

(8)
termsm0 M vH
vx

m0 M vH
vy

The
and
in (6) and (7), respectively, represent the components of magnetic force, per unit volume, and
depend on the existence of the magnetic gradient on the corresponding x and y directions. These two terms are well known from
FHD which is the so-called the Kelvin force. The
termssnf B2y u snf Bx By v andsnf B2x v snf Bx By u appearing in (6)
and (7), respectively, represent the Lorentz force per unit volume
towards the x and y directions and arise due to the electrical conductivity of the uid. These two terms are known in MHD. The
principles of MHD and FHD are combined in the mathematical
model presented in Ref. [62] and the above mentioned terms arise
together in the governing Eqs. (6) and (7). The term
vH
vH
m0 T vM
vT u vx v vy in Eq. (8) represents the thermal power per unit
volume due to the magneto caloric effect. Also the term
snf(uBy  vBx)2 in (8) represents the Joule heating. For the variation
of the magnetization M, with the magnetic eld intensity H and
temperature T, the following relation derived in Ref. [62] is
considered:

mf
1  f2:5

(14)

The effective thermal conductivity of the nanouid can be

approximated by the MG (MaxwelleGarnetts) model as [63]:



ks 2kf  2f kf  ks
knf



kf
ks 2kf f kf  ks

(15)

and the effective electrical conductivity of nanouid was presented by Maxwell [64] as below:

snf
1
sf

!
ss
3
1 f
sf
!
!
ss
ss
2 
1 f
sf
sf

(16)

(9)

where K is a constant and Tc0 is the Curie temperature.

In the above equations, m0 is the magnetic permeability of vacuum (4p  107 Tm/A), H is the magnetic eld strength, B is the
magnetic induction B m0 H and the bar above the quantities
denotes that they are dimensional. The effective density (rnf) and
heat capacitance (rCp)nf of the nanouid are dened as [63]:

rnf rf

mnf

By introducing the following non-dimensional variables:



M K 0 H Tc0  T


1  f rs f

(10)

 


 


rCp nf rCp f 1  f rCp s f

a
b
x
y
T  Tc
uL
vL
a ;b ;X ;Y ;Q
;U ;V ;
L
L
L
L
af
af
Th  Tc
H

Hy
H
Hx
p
; Hx
; Hy
; P  . 2
H0
H0
H0
rf af L

(17)

g
where in Eq. (17) H0 Ha; 0 2pjbj
and L rout  rin. Using the
dimensionless parameters, the equations now become:

(11)

where f is the solid volume fraction of nanoparticles. Thermal

diffusivity of the nanouids is

k
anf  nf
rCp nf

(12)

and the thermal expansion coefcient of the nanouid can be

determined as



bnf bf 1  f bs f

(13)

The dynamic viscosity of the nanouids given by Brinkman [63]

is.

Table 2
Comparison of the average Nusselt number Nuave along hot wall for different grid
resolution at Ra 105, f 0.04, MnF 500, Ha 5, Ec 105, 1 0 and Pr 6.8.
41  121

51  151

61  181

71  211

81  241

91  271

101  301

5.394706

5.460063

5.486711

5.495555

5.496007

5.492356

5.486761

Fig. 3. Comparison of average Nusselt number between the present results and numerical results by Khanafer et al. [63] Gr 104, f 0.1 and Pr 6.8(Cu  Water).

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convective heat transfer, Energy (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2014.07.089

M. Sheikholeslami, D.D. Ganji / Energy xxx (2014) 1e11

Table 4
Average Nusselt number versus at different Grashof number under various strengths
of the magnetic eld at Pr 0.733.
Ha

0
10
50
100

Gr 2  104

Gr 2  105

Present

Rudraiah et al. [67]

Present

Rudraiah et al. [67]

2.5665
2.26626
1.09954
1.02218

2.5188
2.2234
1.0856
1.011

5.093205
4.9047
2.67911
1.46048

4.9198
4.8053
2.8442
1.4317

vU vV

0
vX vY

(18)

" . #
!
mnf mf
vU
vU
vP
v2 U v2 U
.
V

Pr
U

vX
vY
vX
vX 2 vY 2
rnf rf
!
rf
vH
2  1  QH
MnF Pr
vX
rnf
" . #

snf sf 
.
Hy2 U  Hx Hy V
 Ha2 Pr
rnf rf

3
knf
!
7 2
2
vQ
vQ 6
6 kf 7 v Q v Q
U
V
6

7
vX
vY 4rCP nf 5 vX 2 vY 2
rCP f
2
3
snf
6 s
7

2
f
6
7
Ha2 Ec6
7 UHy  VHx
4rCP nf 5
rCP f


rCP f
vH
vH
V
H1 Q
U
MnF Ec
vX
vY
rCP nf
2
3
mnf
(
 )
 2 
6 m
7 vU 2
vV
vU vV 2
f
6
7

Ec6
2

7 2
4rCP nf 5
vX
vY
vY vX
rCP f
(21)

(19)
whereRaf gbf L3 Th  Tc =af yf ; Prf yf =af ; Ha Lm0 H0
T1 =DT; 2 Tc0 =DT; Ec mf af =rCP f DTL2 

"
#
!
mnf mf
vV
vV
vP
v2 V v2 V
.
V

Pr

vX
vY
vX
vX 2 vY 2
rnf rf
!
rf
vH
MnF Pr
2  1  QH
vY
rnf
" . #
" #

snf sf 
b
.
Hx2 V  Hx Hy U RaPr nf Q
 Ha2 Pr
bf
rnf rf
(20)

and

q
sf =mf ; 1
MnF m0 H02 K 0

Th  Tc L2 =mf af are the Rayleigh number, Prandtl number, Hartmann number arising from MHD, temperature number, curie
temperature number, Eckert number and Magnetic number arising
from FHD the for the base uid, respectively. The thermo physical
properties of the nanouid are given in Table 1 [65].
The stream function and vorticity are dened as:

vj
vj
vv vu
;v  ;u

vy
vx
vx vy

uL2
j
;J
af
af

(22)

Fig. 4. Comparison of the isotherm and streamlines between nanouid (f 0.04) () and pure uid (f 0) (ee) when MnF 500, Ha 5 and Pr 6.8.

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M. Sheikholeslami, D.D. Ganji / Energy xxx (2014) 1e11

The stream function satises the continuity Eq. (18). The

vorticity equation is obtained by eliminating the pressure between
the two momentum equations, i.e. by taking y-derivative of Eq. (20)
and subtracting from it the x-derivative of Eq. (19).

Q 1:0 on the inner circular boundary

Q 0:0 on the outer circular boundary
J 0:0 on all solid boundaries

(23)

The values of vorticity on the boundary of the enclosure can be

obtained using the stream function formulation and the known
velocity conditions during the iterative solution procedure.
The local Nusselt number of the nanouid along the cold wall
can be expressed as:

Nuloc

knf
kf

vQ
vr

(24)

where r is the radial direction. The average Nusselt number on the

hot circular wall is evaluated as:

Nuave

1
p

Zp
Nuloc zdz

(25)

To estimate the enhancement of heat transfer between the case

of f 0.04 and the pure uid (base uid) case, the heat transfer
enhancement is dened as:

En

Nuf 0:04  Nubasefluid

 100
Nubasefluid

(26)

3.2. Numerical procedure

A control volume nite element method is used in this work.
The building block of the discretization is the triangular element
and the values of variables are approximated with linear interpolation within the elements. The control volumes are created by
joining the center of each element in the support to the mid points
of the element sides that pass through the central node i which

Fig. 5. Isotherms (up) and streamlines (down) contours for different values of Hartmann number and Magnetic number when Ra 103, f 0.04, Pr 6.8.

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M. Sheikholeslami, D.D. Ganji / Energy xxx (2014) 1e11

creates a close polygonal control volume (see Fig. 1(b) and (c)). The
set of governing equations is integrated over the Control Volume
with the use of linear interpolation inside the nite element and
the obtained algebretic equations are solved by the Gauss-Seidel
Method. A FORTRAN code is developed to solve the present problem using a structured mesh of linear triangular. The details of this
method are mentioned in Ref. [3].

4. Grid testing and code validation

A mesh testing procedure was conducted to guarantee the gridindependency of the present solution. Various mesh combinations
were explored for the case of Ra 105, f 0.04, MnF 500, Ha 5,
Ec 105, 1 0 and Pr 6.8 as shown in Table 2. The present code
was tested for grid independence by calculating the average Nusselt
number on the inner hot wall. In harmony with this, it was found
that a grid size of 71  211 ensures a grid-independent solution. The
convergence criterion for the termination of all computations is:

maxgrid Gn1  Gn  107

(27)

where n is the iteration number and G stands for the independent

variables (U,J,Q). To validate the present study the results obtained
using the CVFEM code are compared for Pr 0.7 with other works
reported in Refs. [63] and [66] as seen in Table 3. Moreover, the code
was tested with the work of Khanafer et al. [63] in Fig. 3 for natural
convection in an enclosure lled with Cuewater nanouid. Another
test for validation of the current code was performed for the case of
natural convection in a square enclosure in the presence of magnetic eld. In this test case, the average Nusselt number using
different Gr and Ha number have been compared with those obtained by Rudraiah et al. [67] as shown in Table 4. These comparisons illustrate an excellent agreement between the present
calculations and the previous works.
5. Results and discussion
Effect of an external magnetic eld on ferrouid ow and heat
transfer in a semi-annulus enclosure with sinusoidal hot wall is
studied. The mathematical model used for the formulation of the
problem is consistent with the principles of FHD (Ferrohydrodynamics) and MHD (Magnetohydrodynamics). The thermo physical

Fig. 6. Isotherms (up) and streamlines (down) contours for different values of Hartmann number and Magnetic number when Ra 104, f 0.04, Pr 6.8.

Please cite this article in press as: Sheikholeslami M, Ganji DD, Ferrohydrodynamic and magnetohydrodynamic effects on ferrouid ow and
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M. Sheikholeslami, D.D. Ganji / Energy xxx (2014) 1e11

properties of Fe3O4 nanoparticles and based uid (water) are

shown in Table 1 [65]. Calculations are made for various values of
volume fraction of nanoparticles (f 0% and 4%), Rayleigh
numbers (Ra 103, 104 and 105), Magnetic number arising from
FHD (MnF 0, 50 and 500) and Hartmann number arising from
MHD (Ha 0, 1, 3 and 5). In all calculations, the Prandtl number
(Pr), temperature number (1) and Eckert number (Ec) are set to 6.8,
0.0 and 1e-5, respectively.
The comparisons of the isotherm and streamlines between
nanouid and pure uid are shown in Fig. 4. The velocity components of nanouid are increased because of an augment in the
energy transport in the uid. Thus, the absolute values of stream
functions increase with augment of the volume fraction of nanouid. Also it can be seen that there is no sensible change on
isotherm.
Effects of Rayleigh number, Hartmann number and Magnetic
number on isotherms and streamlines are shown in Figs. 5e7. At
low Rayleigh number, conduction heat transfer mechanism is
dominant in absence of magnetic eld. As Hartmann number increases absolute value of maximum stream function decreases. As

Magnetic number increases three thermal plume appears over the

hot wall. Also primary vortex in each side turns in to two smaller
vortexes. As the Rayleigh number increases, the role of convection
in heat transfer becomes more signicant and consequently the
thermal boundary layer on the surface of the inner wall becomes
thinner. In addition, a plume starts to appear on the top of the inner

circular wall at z 90 . As Lorentz forces increases thermal plume
converts to three plumes. Also it can be seen that at high Hartmann
number two secondary eddies exist near the vertical center line. At
Ra 105, effects of kelvin forces is not sensible while increasing
Lorentz forces leads to appear two equals eddies near the vertical
center line.
Effects of Magnetic number, Hartmann number and Rayleigh
number on local and average Nusselt number are depicted in Fig. 8
and Table 5. Nusselt number increases with increase of Rayleigh
number while it decreases with increase of Hartmann number.
Increasing Magnetic number causes Nusselt number to increase
expect for Ra 105. Table 6 illustrates the effects of Magnetic
number, Hartmann number and Rayleigh number on heat transfer
enhancement. For low Rayleigh number, enhancement increases

Fig. 7. Isotherms (up) and streamlines (down) contours for different values of Hartmann number and Magnetic number when Ra 105, f 0.04, Pr 6.8.

Please cite this article in press as: Sheikholeslami M, Ganji DD, Ferrohydrodynamic and magnetohydrodynamic effects on ferrouid ow and
convective heat transfer, Energy (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2014.07.089

10

M. Sheikholeslami, D.D. Ganji / Energy xxx (2014) 1e11

Fig. 8. Effects of Magnetic number, Hartmann number and Rayleigh number on local Nusselt number Nuloc along hot wall when f 0.04.

Table 5
Effects of Rayleigh number, Hartmann number and Magnetic number on average
Nusselt number when f 0.04.
Ra
3

10
103
103
103
104
104
104
104
105
105
105
105

MnF

Ha

Nuave

0
0
500
500
0
0
500
500
0
0
500
500

0
5
0
5
0
5
0
5
0
5
0
5

0.984445
0.899518
1.478063
0.999565
2.135067
1.702675
2.365715
1.926001
5.926064
5.490067
5.843355
5.495555

with increase of Hartmann number while it decrease with increase

of Magnetic number. Opposite trend is observed for highest Rayleigh number.
6. Conclusions
Ferrouid ow and heat transfer in presence of magnetic eld in
a semi-annulus enclosure with sinusoidal hot wall is investigated.
CVFEM is used to solve the governing equations in which both effects of FHD and MHD are considered. Numerical results are

Table 6
Effects of Rayleigh number, Hartmann number and Magnetic number on heat
transfer enhancement.
Ra

MnF

Ha

En

103
103
103
103
104
104
104
104
105
105
105
105

0
0
500
500
0
0
500
500
0
0
500
500

0
5
0
5
0
5
0
5
0
5
0
5

7.461432
8.552658
4.123763
2.677329
7.135186
5.86332
6.471199
4.675113
11.38515
11.32785
11.60219
10.95681

obtained for different values of Rayleigh number, nanoparticle

volume fraction, Magnetic number arising from FHD and Hartmann
number arising from MHD. Results show that effect of Kelvin forces
is more sensible for low Rayleigh number. Also it can be concluded
that Nusselt number increases with augment of Rayleigh number
and nanoparticle volume fraction but it decreases with increase of
Hartmann number. Magnetic number has different effect on Nusselt number corresponding to Rayleigh number.
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Please cite this article in press as: Sheikholeslami M, Ganji DD, Ferrohydrodynamic and magnetohydrodynamic effects on ferrouid ow and
convective heat transfer, Energy (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2014.07.089