Enhanced Heat Transfer Rate Measured for Natural Convection in Liquid Gallium in a Cubical Enclosure Under a Static Magnetic Field

The heat transfer rate of natural convection in liquid gallium in a cubical enclosure was measured experimentally under an external magnetic field applied horizontally and parallel to the vertical heated wall and the opposing cooled wall and the opposing cooled wall of the enclosure. One vertical wall was heated with an electric heater and the opposing wall was cooled isothermally with running water. Experiments were conducted in the range of modified Rayleigh number from 1.85 × 10⁶ to 4.76 × 10⁶ and of Hartmann number from 0 to 573. The average Nusselt number was measured and found to increase when a moderate magnetic field was applied, but to decrease under a stronger magnetic field. This result means that the heat transfer rate has a maximum value at a certain moderate magnetic field, which supports our previous numerical analyses.