Nanofluid forced convective heat transfer in a porous semi-annulus is studied in presence of uniform magnetic field. Various shapes of nanoparticles are considered. Brownian motion impact on viscosity of nanofluid is taken into account. Governing equations are presented in vorticity stream function formulation. Control volume based finite element method (CVFEM) is utilized to obtain the results. At first, the best shape of nanoparticles is selected and then influences of nanofluid volume fraction, Darcy, Reynolds and Hartmann numbers are presented. Results showed that velocity of nanofluid enhances with increase of Darcy and Reynolds numbers. Platelet shape has the highest rate of heat transfer. Nusselt number enhances with increase of nanofluid volume fraction, Darcy, and Reynolds number while it reduces with increase of Lorentz forces. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.