Simulation of heat transfer in a ferrofluid using computational fluid dynamics technique

In the present work computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was used to study heat transfer phenomena in a kerosene based ferrofluid. The flow behaviour was investigated in two cylinders with different dimensions, and the ferrofluid was treated as a two phase mixture of magnetic particles in the carrier phase. Different temperature gradients and uniform magnetic fields were applied over the geometries. Numerical results illustrate that the transport processes in the presence of magnetic field will enhance in comparison with the field free case. In addition obtained results show that in the presence of aggregation of magnetic particles heat transfer will decrease, and Rayleigh rolls will not be observed. It was also shown that when magnetic field is perpendicular to the temperature gradient, the heat transfer will increase more compare to the case with magnetic field parallel to temperature gradient. (C) 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.