Electronic edition ISSN 1574-0579

Combined effects of magnetic field and thermal radiation on fluid flow and heat transfer in molten salt

Panxin Li^1,2 , Jiajun Song² , Lu Chen² , Benwen Li² , Christian Karcher¹

¹ Institute of Thermodynamics and Fluid Mechanics, Technische Universität Ilmenau, Ilmenau, Germany
² School of Energy and Power Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, China

Abstract
The combined effects of magnetic field and thermal radiation on the fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics of two-dimensional Rayleigh-Bénard convection in molten salt are investigated numerically by using a collocation spectral method. A series of simulations are carried out for Rayleigh numbers between 10⁵ and 10⁶, Hartmann number ranging from 30 to 100, and with the radiation-conduction parameter fixed between 0.5 and 4, respectively. For the computation of radiation field, we start from a simple model, named the linear Rosseland approximation [1], which assumes that the radiative heat flux is mainly diffusive and proportional to the temperature gradient. The results show that the convective heat transfer along the bottom wall is weakened under the combined influences of both magnetic field and thermal radiation. However, depending on the actual values of the parameters, the overall convective heat transfer and fluid flow can be either enhanced or suppressed under the combined effects. Tables 3, Figs 8, Refs 12.