Effect of an alternating nonuniform magnetic field on ferrofluid flow and heat transfer in a channel

Forced convective heat transfer of water based Fe3O4 nanofluid (ferrofluid) in the presence of an alternating non-uniform magnetic field is investigated numerically. The geometry is a two-dimensional channel which is subjected to a uniform heat flux at the top and bottom surfaces. Nonuniform magnetic field produced by eight line source dipoles is imposed on several parts of the channel. Also, a rectangular wave function is applied to the dipoles in order to turn them on and off alternatingly. The effects of the alternating magnetic field strength and frequency on the convective heat transfer are investigated for four different Reynolds numbers (Re=100, 600, 1200 and 2000) in the laminar flow regime. Comparing the results with zero magnetic field case, show that the heat transfer enhancement increases with the Reynolds number and reaches a maximum of 13.9% at Re=2000 and f=20 Hz. Moreover, at a constant Reynolds number, it increases with the magnetic field intensity while an optimum value exists for the frequency. Also, the optimum frequency increases with the Reynolds number. On the other hand, the heat transfer enhancement due to the magnetic field is always accompanied by a pressure drop penalty. A maximum pressure drop increase of 6% is observed at Re=2000 and f=5 Hz which shows that the pressure drop increase is not as significant as the heat transfer enhancement.