Thermo-Magneto-Convective Transport around a Square Cylinder in a Square Duct under Strong Axial Magnetic Field

A quasi two-dimensional numerical study is performed to analyze the thermo-magneto-convective transport of liquid metal around a square cylinder in a square duct subjected to a strong externally imposed axial magnetic field. The channel bottom wall is considered heated while the top wall is maintained at the free stream temperature keeping the cylinder adiabatic. The Reynolds and Hartmann numbers are kept in the range 0 Re 6000  and 0 Ha 2160  . The flow dynamics in the aforementioned range of parameters reveals the existence of four different regimes out of which the first three ones are similar to the classical non-MHD 2-D cylinder wakes while the fourth one is characterized by the vortices evolved from the duct side walls due to the boundary layer separation which strongly disturbs the Kármán vortex street. The flow dynamics and heat transfer rate from the heated channel wall are observed to depend on the imposed magnetic field strength. With increasing magnetic field, the flow becomes stabilized resulting in a degradation in the forced convection heat transfer. A special case at a very high Reynolds number 4 3 10Re  with Ha = 2160 is also considered to show the development of a Kelvin–Helmholtz-type instability that substantially affects the heat transfer rate.