Wall-Confined Flow and Heat Transfer Around a Square Cylinder at Low Reynolds and Hartmann Numbers

This article discusses the results obtained through a two-dimensional numerical simulation following a finite volume approach on the forced convection heat transfer for the hydromagnetic flow around a square cylinder at low Reynolds and Hartmann numbers. The magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) flow of a viscous incompressible and electrically conducting fluid is assumed to take place in a rectangular channel subjected to externally imposed magnetic fields and the cylinder is fixed within the channel. The magnetic fields may be applied either along the streamwise or transverse directions. Simulations are performed for the range of kinetic Reynolds number 10 <= Re <= 60 with Hartmann number 0 <= Ha <= 15 and for different thermal Prandtl numbers, Pr = 0.02 (liquid metal), 0.71 (air), and 7 (water) for a blockage ratio beta = 0.25. A steady flow can be expected for the above range of conditions. Besides the channel wall, the magnetic field imparts additional stability to the flow as a consequence of which the recirculation region behind the obstacle reduces with increasing magnetic field strength for a particular Re. The critical Hartmann numbers for the complete suppression of flow separation in the case of a transversely applied magnetic field are computed. The rate of heat transfer is found almost invariant at low Re whereas it increases moderately for higher Re with the applied magnetic field. The heat transfer increases in general with the Reynolds number for all Hartmann numbers. Finally, the influence of obstacle shape on the thermohydrodynamic quantities is noted. (C) 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.