Eur. Phys. J. Plus (2017) 132: 65
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/i2017-11324-1

Regular Article

Numerical investigation of the heat transfer of a ferrofluid inside a tube in the presence of a non-uniform magnetic field

¹ Department of Chemical Engineering, Iran University of Science &Technology, Tehran, Iran
² Department of Chemical & Petroleum Engineering, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran
³ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Babol University of Technology, Babol, Iran
⁴ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sari Branch, Islamic Azad University, Sari, Iran

Received: 2 November 2016
Accepted: 27 December 2016
Published online: 10 February 2017

Abstract

In this article, a three-dimensional numerical investigation is performed to study the effect of a magnetic field on a ferrofluid inside a tube. This study comprehensively analyzes the influence of a non-uniform magnetic field in the heat transfer of a tube while a ferrofluid (water with 0.86 vol% nanoparticles (Fe₃O₄) is let flow. The SIMPLEC algorithm is used for obtaining the flow and heat transfer inside the tube. The influence of various parameters, such as concentration of nanoparticles, intensity of the magnetic field, wire distance and Reynolds number, on the heat transfer is investigated. According to the obtained results, the presence of a non-uniform magnetic field significantly increases the Nusselt number (more than 300%) inside the tube. Also, the magnetic field induced by the parallel wire affects the average velocity of the ferrofluid and forms two strong eddies in the tube. Our findings show that the diffusion also raises as the concentration of the nanoparticle is increased.