Natural convection of alumina-water nanofluid in a partially heated square cavity with isothermal blockage inside with uniform magnetic field and heat generation/absorption.

Natural convection of Al 2 O 3 -water nanofluid in a square cavity with an isothermally heated square blockage and partially heated on the bottom wall is investigated numerically. The effect of uniform magnetic field and heat generation/absorption is also studied. The governing equations are discretized by the finite volume method using power law scheme and solved by semi-implicit method for pressure-linked equation algorithm. The study was first validated with published works and satisfactory agreement was obtained. The effect of thermophysical parameters such as Rayleigh number, Hartmann number, heat generation/absorption and solid volume fraction of nanoparticles on the flow and temperature fields is demonstrated. The results are presented graphically in the form of isotherms, streamlines, velocity and Nusselt number. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]