Magneto-hydrothermal performance of hybrid nanofluid flow through a non-Darcian porous complex wavy enclosure

The present work elucidates the hydrothermal characteristics within a non-Darcian porous complex wavy enclosure saturated with Al2O3-Cu-H2O hybrid nanofluid considering a uniform magnetic field. The left sidewall of the enclosure is wavy and heated isothermally, whereas the other sidewall is maintained at ambient temperature, all other walls are insulated. The Forchheimer-Brinkman-extended Darcy model is implemented to analyze the flow through porous media. The dimensionless transport equations are numerically solved following the finite volume-based in-house computational code with successive staggered non-uniform mesh distribution. The hydrothermal behaviors are investigated meticulously changing the dimensionless variables like undulation amplitude (lambda), Hartmann number (Ha), Darcy number (Da), and modified-Rayleigh number (Ra-m). The remarkable results reveal that enhancing the heating surface area by heightening the amplitude of the undulation always leads to higher heat transfer, but does not always favor the growth of the flow strength. The heightening of the flow strength with amplitude is noted for higher Ra-m only. The flow intensity, as well as heat transfer, increases with the growing Ra-m. The same decreases with increasing Da and Ha. Local distribution of heat transfer characteristics shows complex behavior depending on the amplitude of the undulations and associated dimensionless numbers.

Automated summary

This study investigates the hydrothermal characteristics of an Al2O3-Cu-H2O hybrid nanofluid saturated in a non-Darcian porous complex wavy enclosure under a uniform magnetic field. Numerical simulations show that increasing the amplitude of the undulation enhances heat transfer, but does not always promote the growth of flow strength. Flow intensity and heat transfer increase with the modified-Rayleigh number, while they decrease with the Darcy number and Hartmann number. The local distribution of heat transfer characteristics exhibits complex behavior depending on the amplitude of the undulations and dimensionless numbers.