Natural convection heat transfer of Al2O3 water nanofluid in a porous cavity containing isothermal blockage under periodic magnetic field

As the increasing demand of energy efficient thermal systems, convective heat transfer using highly thermal conductive nanofluids plays a crucial role in the recent years. The present work examines natural convective fluid flow and heat transfer of Al2O3-water nanofluid inside a porous cavity with centralized isothermal blockage for three different cases of partially implemented periodic magnetic effect. The transport equations are numerically solved by adopting SIMPLE algorithm and the obtained computational results are examined against previous benchmark studies to ensure the reliability and efficiency of the present numerical results. The impact of distinct parameters namely Rayleigh number (Ra), Hartmann number (Ha), Darcy number (Da), period number (λ) and nanoparticle volume fraction (ϕ) are discussed in detail. From the study, an improved heat transfer rate is obtained for the rising values of Ra, Da and ϕ but deteriorated with increasing Ha. Further, the highest heat transfer rate is noticed when the applied magnetic field is about the middle region of the cavity.