Thermal Performance of Vented MHD Corrugated Enclosure: Effects of Cylinder Configuration for Nuclear and Electronics Cooling Applications

ABSTRACT This numerical study investigates MHD pure mixed convection in a vented, filleted enclosure with sinusoidally corrugated walls, containing an internally heat‐generating circular cylinder. The effects of cylinder position, ( X c , Y c ) = (0.5, 0.5), (0.3, 0.5), and (0.7, 0.5) and rotation (Ω = −30 to +30) are analyzed under buoyancy‐assisted flow ( Ri = 1) with coupled inertial and magnetic effects ( N = 1, 10 ≤ Gr ≤ 10 5 , Re = √Gr and Ha = √ Re ). The governing equations for mass, momentum, and energy equations are solved numerically using the Galerkin Finite Element Method, implemented in COMSOL Multiphysics software. Results reveal that geometric placement dominates system performance. The stationary cylinder positioned near the outlet wall (0.7, 0.5) delivers the best overall thermal and thermodynamic performance, achieving the highest mean Nusselt number ( Nu ), the lowest mean fluid temperature , and the lowest thermal performance criterion ( TPC ). Entropy generation analysis reveals that heat generation irreversibility overwhelmingly dominates (99.91%–99.98%), while thermal, viscous, and magnetic contributions are negligible. In contrast, cylinder rotation weakens the buoyancy‐driven circulation responsible for convective heat transfer, reducing the Nu by up to 65%, while increasing the and TPC . as is evident at Gr = 10 5 , where the Nu drops from 14.36 to 4.70, whereas the TPC more than doubles. Overall, the results demonstrate that positioning a stationary heat‐generating cylinder near the outlet wall provides the best performance among the three positions investigated for maximizing heat‐transfer and thermodynamic performance in vented MHD thermal management systems.