Numerical investigation of magnetic field effects on mixed convection flow in a nanofluid-filled lid-driven cavity

In this work, the stencil adaptive method is applied to investigate the effects ofa magnetic field on mixed convection of Al inf 2 /inf O inf 3 /inf -water nanofluid in a square lid-driven cavity. The incompressible Navier-Stokes equations are solved by anadaptive mesh method which has superior numerical advantages compared to the traditional method on the uniform fine grid. The main objective of this study is to investigate the influence of several pertinent parameters such as the Reynolds number, the Hartmann number and the solid particle volume fraction on the heat transfer performance of the nanofluid. Based on the obtained numerical results, the heat transfer rate increases with an increase of the Reynolds number but, it decreases with an increase of the Hartmannnumber. In addition, the results indicate that enhancement in heat transfer performanceof the nanofluid with respect to that of the base fluid is depended on the Reynolds number. © 2013 Elsevier B.V.