Eur. Phys. J. Spec. Top. (2022) 231: 2661-2668
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjs/s11734-022-00604-8

Regular Article

Numerical investigation of unsteady MHD mixed convective flow of hybrid nanofluid in a corrugated trapezoidal cavity with internal rotating heat-generating solid cylinder

¹ Department of Mathematics, The University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica
² Department of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago
³ Faculty of Engineering, Kuwait College of Science and Technology, 35004, Doha, Kuwait

^b Sreedhara.Rao@sta.uwi.edu

Received: 30 December 2021
Accepted: 3 May 2022
Published online: 15 May 2022

Abstract

This study examines the magnetohydrodynamic flow of hybrid silver-alumina (Ag-Al${}_2$O${}_3$)/water nanofluid within a corrugated trapezoidal cavity that contains a heat-generating rotating solid cylinder. The hybrid nanofluid flow and convective heat transfer are modelled using a single-phase approach. The governing equations for fluid flow and convective heat transfer are solved using the penalty finite element method. The finite element algorithm was validated against previously published work, and it was found to be in good agreement with the existing literature. We investigate the effects of the Ag and Al${}_2$O${}_3$ nanoparticle diameters and the radius of the heat-generating solid cylinder on streamlines, isotherms and average Nusselt number. The results of this study reveal that the flow circulation regions near the rotating cylinder are enhanced with increased nanoparticle diameters and cylinder radius. Moreover, the nanofluid temperature and heat transfer rate are increased with reduced nanoparticle diameters and increased cylinder radius.