The present study addresses the thermomagnetic convection of a ferrofluid in a multi-layer anisotropic porous enclosure. A partitioned cavity with different anisotropic porous features is considered, including two permanent magnets and two differentially heated plates. The governing equations are solved using the finite element method, to analyze the impact of parameters like anisotropic permeability, ratio of permeability principal directions, orientation of principal permeability directions, Darcy number, and magnetic Rayleigh number. For high Rayleigh number, increasing the permeability ratio diminishes the convective flow. The heat transfer intensity can be increased by up to 4 times by varying Darcy number. Increasing the magnetic Rayleigh number improves the convective flow. An average of 20% rise in the heat transfer intensity can be obtained by increasing the intensity of the magnetic effects. Raising the permeability directions ratio to 10 can lead to up to100% change in Nusselt number when the magnetic effects are strong. Nusselt number can also be increased by up to 4 times when Darcy number is raised from 10−5 to 10−3. These results bring new insights into the thermomagnetic convection of ferrofluids in anisotropic porous media and can guide the design of novel heat exchange and control devices.
