Numerical study of thermo-fluid features of electrically conducting fluids in tube bank heat exchangers exposed to uniform magnetic fields

When an electrically conducting fluid flows through a staggered tube bank, the heat transfer and fluid flow features are changed by the externally introduced magnetic field. This study provides a numerical investigation of this phenomenon. Heat and fluid flows are investigated for unsteady laminar flows at Reynolds numbers of 50 and 100 with the Hartmann number gradually increasing from zero to 100. As the Hartmann number increases, and owing to the effects of the introduced magnetic field, the velocity boundary layer near the tube wall is thinned, the flow separation is delayed downstream, and the shrinkage of a recirculation zone formed near the rear side is observed. Based on these thermo-fluid deformations, the resulting changes in the local and average Nusselt number are investigated.