Abstract:
Due to the efficient heat transfer properties, nanofluids have become the core of research in present world in the sector of engineering, biotechnology, pharmaceutical industries etc. The present work prioritizes the numerical assessment of MHD mixed convective flow of n-decane/Graphite nanofluid inside a lid-driven trapezoidal enclosure with radiation effect, where the left and right bottom, the side walls are kept thermally insulated, the upper wall (moving with uniform velocity, u0) is in cold temperature (Tc) and a rectangular heater (with temperature, Th) is placed in the middle of the bottom wall of the enclosure. The dimensional set of equations and boundary conditions are transformed into non-dimensional form using proper scaling, further the numerical execution of governing equations are conducted by the Galerkin weighted residual method in the finite element analysis. The resulting parameters, Hartmann number (Ha = 0, 30, 50 and 80), solid nanoparticle volume fraction (ϕ = 1%, 5%, 10% and 15%), Radiation parameter (Rd = 0, 2, 3 and 4), Reynolds number (Re = 100, 200, 300 and 400) depict the result in terms of streamlines, isothermal contours, average heat transfer rate/ average Nusselt number (Nuav), average velocity (Vav). It is observed that, the Hartmann number has a negative impact on the fluid flow, hence, it diminishes the vortex strength, average heat transfer rate and average velocity in all cases. In present case, adding more solid nanoparticles to the base fluid enhances the average heat that is being transferred from the source to the fluid but it lessen the flow strength and average velocity. Increase in Radiation parameter elevates the streamline vortex strength and average velocity, in contrast, average Nusselt number (Nuav) is dropped by Radiation parameter. The Reynolds number appears to have positive impact on the overall phenomena as it gives rise to all the streamline vortex strength, average Nusselt number (Nuav) and average velocity (Vav).