DRBEM solution of free convection in porous enclosures under the effect of a magnetic field

Abstract

The dual reciprocity boundary element method (DRBEM) is applied for solving steady free convection in special shape enclosures filled with a fluid saturated porous medium under the effect of a magnetic field. The left and right walls are maintained at constant or different temperatures while the top and bottom walls are kept adiabatic. The effect of the external magnetic field on the flow and temperature behavior is visualized with different Rayleigh numbers Ra, Hartmann numbers Ha and inclination angle phi. The boundary only nature of DRBEM results in considerably small computational cost in obtaining numerical solution. The results are in good qualitative agreement with the available numerical results in the literature. It is found that the increase in the strength of the magnetic field causes the suppression on the motion of the fluid which points to the conductive heat transfer. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.