Modeling of MHD natural convection in a square enclosure having an adiabatic square shaped body using Lattice Boltzmann Method

A steady laminar two-dimensional magneto-hydrodynamics (MHD) natural convection flow in a square enclosure filled with an electrically conducting fluid is numerically investigated using Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM). The left and right vertical sidewalls of the square enclosure are maintained at hot and cold temperatures respectively. The horizontal top and bottom walls are considered thermally insulated. An adiabatic square shaped body is located in the center of a square enclosure and an external magnetic field is applied parallel to the horizontal x-axis. In the present work, the following parametric ranges of the non-dimensional groups are utilized: Hartmann number is varied as 0 <= Ha <= 50, Rayleigh number is varied as 10(3) <= Ra <= 10(5), Prandtl number is varied 0.05 <= Pr <= 5. It is found that the Hartmann number, Rayleigh number, and Prandtl number have an important role on the flow and thermal characteristics. It is found that when the Hartmann number increases the average Nusselt number decreases. The results also explain that the effect of magnetic field on flow field increases by increasing Prandtl number. However, the Prandtl number effect on the average Nusselt number with a magnetic field is less than the case without a magnetic field. Comparisons with previously published numerical works are performed and good agreements between the results are observed. (C) 2015 Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons. org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).