Heat transfer in natural convection of magnetic fluids

The natural convection of a magnetic fluid in a two-dimensional rectangular cavity with an imposition of an even vertical magnetic field was studied experimentally and numerically. Results obtained from the numerical analysis showed good agreement with experimental heat transfer data. From both experiment and numerical analysis, it was revealed that the vertically imposed magnetic field has a destabilizing influence, and at the super critical state the flow mode becomes substantially different from that with no magnetic field. A prediction from the numerical analysis indicates that the imposition of the magnetic field causes the flow to a higher transition flow mode, enhancing the heat transfer.