Numerical and Experimental Study of Rayleigh–Bénard–Kelvin Convection

• DOI: 10.1007/s10494-013-9490-8
• Publication Date: 2013-09-11T12:05:10Z
• Authors: S. Kenjereš; L. Pyrda; E. Fornalik-Wajs; J. S. Szmyd
• Keywords: 0103 physical sciences; 7. Clean energy; 01 natural sciences

We performed experimental and numerical studies of combined effects of thermal buoyancy and magnetization force applied on a cubical enclosure of a paramagnetic fluid heated from below and cooled from top. The temperature difference between the hot and cold wall was kept constant. After considering neutral situation (i.e. a pure natural convection case), magnetic fields of different intensity were imposed. The magnetization force produced significant changes in flow (transition from laminar to turbulent regimes), wall-heat transfer (enhancement) and turbulence (turbulence structures reorganization). The strong magnetic field and its gradients were generated by a superconducting magnet which can generate magnetic field up to 10 T and where gradients of the magnetic induction can reach up to 900 T2/m. A good agreement between experiments and numerical simulations was obtained in predicting the integral wall heat transfer over entire range of considered working parameters. Numerical simulations provided a detailed insights into changes of the local wall-heat transfer and long-term time averaged first and second moments for different strengths of the imposed magnetic induction.