Natural convection boundary layer flow over a truncated cone in a porous medium saturated by a nanofluid

This work studies the natural convection boundary layer flow over a truncated cone embedded in a porous medium saturated by a nanofluid with constant wall temperature and constant wall nanoparticle volume fraction. The effects of Brownian motion and thermophoresis are incorporated into the model for nanofluids. A suitable coordinate transformation is performed, and the obtained nonsimilar equations are solved by the cubic spline collocation method. The effect of the Brownian motion parameter and thermophoresis parameter on the temperature, nanoparticle volume fraction and velocity profiles are discussed. The effects of the thermophoresis parameter, Brownian parameter, Lewis number, and buoyancy ratio on the local Nusselt number have been studied. Results show that an increase in the thermophoresis parameter or the Brownian parameter tends to decrease the local Nusselt number. Moreover, the local Nusselt number increases as the buoyancy ratio or the Lewis number is decreased.     

Free convection boundary layer flow over a horizontal cylinder of elliptic cross section in porous media saturated by a nanofluid

This work studies the free convection boundary layer flow over a horizontal cylinder of elliptic cross section in porous media saturated by a nanofluid with constant wall temperature and constant wall nanoparticle volume fraction. The effects of Brownian motion and thermophoresis are incorporated into the model for nanofluids. A coordinate transformation is performed, and the obtained nonsimilar governing equations are then solved by the cubic spline collocation method. The effects of the Brownian motion parameter and thermophoresis parameter on the profiles of the temperature, nanoparticle volume fraction and velocity profiles are presented. The local Nusselt number is presented as a function of the thermophoresis parameter, Brownian parameter, Lewis number and the aspect ratio when the major axis of the elliptical cylinder is vertical (slender orientation) and horizontal (blunt orientation). Results show that the local Nusselt number is increased as the thermophoresis parameter or the Brownian parameter is decreased. The local Nusselt number increases as the buoyancy ratio or the Lewis number is decreased. Moreover, the local Nusselt number of the elliptical cylinder with slender orientation is higher than those of the elliptical cylinder with blunt orientation over the lower half cylinder.     

The onset of natural convection in a horizontal nanofluid layer heated from below

A linear stability analysis is performed for the onset of natural convection in a horizontal nanofluid layer heated from below. The motion of nanoparticles is characterized by both the thermophoresis and Brownian diffusion effects. Different from previous studies in the literature, both the dependences of thermophoresis on nanoparticle volume fraction and Brownian motion on temperature are taken into consideration in the theoretical model. The result reveals that the base flow is mainly dominated by the effect of thermophoresis and the Brownian diffusion coefficient can be treated as a constant reasonably when a finite temperature difference is imposed across the nanofluid layer. Accordingly, a novel base solution of nanoparticle volume fraction is derived. It is found that the profile of nanoparticle concentration depends heavily on the magnitude of thermophoretic diffusion, which may exhibit a nonlinear distribution across the nanofluid layer once the effect of thermophoresis is significant. The suspended nanoparticles produce a strong destabilizing effect and a tiny volume fraction of nanoparticles is sufficient to trigger the onset of convection and make the nanofluid layer become unconditionally unstable. The dispersion spectra of unstable modes are demonstrated and the most unstable mode with the maximum growth rate is explored. The growth rate of the most unstable mode is found to increase significantly with increasing nanoparticle concentration, while the influence of heat capacity ratio of nanoparticle to base fluid on the behavior of thermal convection is negligible.     

Stagnation point flow of Maxwell nanofluid containing gyrotactic micro‐organism impinging obliquely on a convective surface

A numerical study is performed to discuss the nonaligned stagnation of a rate type fluid over a convective surface. The rheology of the fluid is presented by the constitutive equation of the Maxwell fluid model. Buongiorno's model is used to elaborate on the effects of Brownian motion and thermophoresis and motile microorganisms are introduced for the stability of the nanoparticles. The governing equations were solved by the implicit finite difference method. Graphical illustrations for velocity, temperature, nanoparticle concentration and motile microorganism profiles for various involved parameters are presented for both convective and nonconvective surfaces. It is depicted that the temperature, nanoparticle, and microorganism concentration profiles decease while both axial and tangential velocities increase with the velocity ratio parameter for both Newtonian and Maxwellian fluids. The magnitude of temperature, nanoparticle, and microorganism concentration profiles is large for the nonconvective surface as compared to the convective surface. The Nusselt number, Sherwood number, and motile organism number decrease as we move from Newtonian fluid to non‐Newtonian fluid. Furthermore, the increase in the Brownian motion parameter and thermophoresis parameter decreases the density of the motile organism over the convective as well as nonconvective surface.     

Analysis of mixed convection flow of a nanofluid in a vertical channel with the Buongiorno mathematical model

The laminar, fully developed mixed convection flow between two paralleled vertical flat plates filled by a nanofluid is investigated. By means of a new set of similarity variables, the governing equations are reduced to a set of three coupled equations with an unknown constant. The exact solutions are obtained by means of the homotopy analysis method for both the buoyancy-assisted and the buoyancy-opposing cases and their accuracies are checked in detail. The effects of the Grashof number Gr and the Prandtl number Pr on the nanofluid flows are then investigated successively. We further consider the effects of the buoyancy ratio Nr, the Brownian motion parameter Nb, the thermophoresis parameter Nt on the pressure parameter σ and the Nusselt number Nu. It is found that the heat transfer characteristic can be improved significantly as the proper nanofluids are applied.     

Unsteady boundary-layer flow and heat transfer of a nanofluid over a permeable stretching/shrinking sheet

The unsteady boundary layer flow of a nanofluid over a permeable stretching/shrinking sheet is theoretically studied. The governing partial differential equations are transformed into ordinary ones using a similarity transformation, before being solved numerically. The results are obtained for the skin friction coefficient, the local Nusselt number and the local Sherwood number as well as the velocity, temperature and the nanoparticle fraction profiles for some values of the governing parameters, namely, the unsteadiness parameter, the mass suction parameter, the Brownian motion parameter, the thermophoresis parameter, Prandtl number, Lewis number and the stretching/shrinking parameter. It is found that dual solutions exist for both stretching and shrinking cases. The results also indicate that both unsteadiness and mass suction widen the range of the stretching/shrinking parameter for which the solution exists.     

Numerical analysis of MHD nanofluid flow over a wedge,including effects of viscous dissipation and heat generation/absorption,using Buongiorno model

The key purpose of this article is to examine magnetohydrodynamics flow, generative/absorptive heat, and mass transfer of nanofluid flow past a wedge in the presence of viscous dissipation through a porous medium. The investigation is completely theoretical, and the present model expresses the influence of Brownian motion and thermophoresis using the nanofluid Buongiorno model. The fundamental model of partial differential equations is reframed into the structure of ordinary differential equations implementing the nondimensional similarity transformation, which are tackled through the fourth–fifth-order Runge–Kutta–Fehlberg algorithm together with the shooting scheme. The analysis of sundry nondimensional controlling parameters, such as magnetic parameter, Eckert number, heat generation/absorption parameter, porosity parameter, Brownian motion parameter, and thermophoresis parameter on velocity, temperature, and concentration profiles are discussed graphically. The effects of the physical factors on the rate of momentum and heat and mass transfer are also determined with appropriate analysis in terms of skin friction, Nusselt number, and Sherwood number. The outcomes illustrate that the local Nusselt number and local Sherwood number are reduced for higher values of the thermophoresis parameter. Besides, it is found that higher estimations of heat generation/absorption and viscous dissipation parameters increase temperature. Moreover, it is found that the temperature profile increases with the involvement of the Brownian motion parameter, while an opposite trend is observed in the concentration profile. A comparison is also provided for limiting cases to authenticate our obtained results.     

Melting heat transfer analysis of electrically conducting nanofluid flow over an exponentially shrinking/stretching porous sheet with radiative heat flux under a magnetic field

Modern magnetic nanomaterial processing operations are progressing rapidly and require increasingly sophisticated mathematical models for their optimization. Stimulated by such developments, in this paper, a theoretical and computational study of a steady magnetohydrodynamic nanofluid over an exponentially stretching/shrinking permeable sheet with melting (phase change) and radiative heat transfer is presented. Besides, wall transpiration, that is, suction and blowing (injection), is included. This study deploys Buongiorno's nanofluid model, which simulates the effects of the Brownian motion and thermophoresis. The transport equations and boundary conditions are normalized via similarity transformations and appropriate variables, and the similarity solutions are shown to depend on the transpiration parameter. The emerging dimensionless nonlinear coupled ordinary differential boundary value problem is solved numerically with the Newton-Fehlberg iteration technique. Validation with special cases from the literature is included. The increase in the magnetic field, that is, the Hartmann number, is observed to elevate nanoparticle concentration and temperature, whereas it dampens the velocity. Higher values of the melting parameter consistently decelerate the boundary layer flow and suppress temperature and nanoparticle concentration. A higher radiative parameter strongly increases temperature (and thermal boundary layer thickness) and weakly accelerates the flow. The increase in the Brownian motion reduces nanoparticle concentrations, whereas a greater thermophoretic body force strongly enhances them. The Nusselt number and Sherwood number are observed to be decreased with an increasing Hartmann number, whereas they are elevated with a stronger wall suction and melting parameter.     

Heat and mass transfer analysis of chemically reactive tangent hyperbolic fluid in a microchannel

This study addresses the fully developed magnetohydrodynamic flow of non-Newtonian fluid in a microchannel using tangent hyperbolic fluid model. The physical situation has been modeled by accessing boundary layer theory along with the physical aspects of thermophoresis and Brownian motion. The heat and mass transport phenomena are depicted through graphical interpretations. The modeled equations are nondimensionalized using dimensionless variables. The obtained corresponding equations are solved by employing Runge–Kutta–Fehlberg scheme accompanied with shooting technique. The fluctuations in distinct entities of physical connotations, like, the Nusselt number, friction factor and Sherwood number are explored in this examination. A notable reduction in the concentration field of the tangent hyperbolic fluid has been obtained for a larger chemical reaction parameter. The result shows that non-Newtonian fluids exhibit higher Nusselt number than Newtonian fluids. Furthermore, a significant enhancement in Nusselt number has been attained through a rise in the power-law index and thermophoresis aspect.     

Boundary-layer flow of nanofluids over a moving surface in a flowing fluid

The steady boundary-layer flow of a nanofluid past a moving semi-infinite flat plate in a uniform free stream is investigated. The plate is assumed to move in the same or opposite directions to the free stream. The resulting system of nonlinear ordinary differential equations is solved numerically using the Keller-box method. Numerical results are obtained for the skin-friction coefficient, the local Nusselt number and the local Sherwood number as well as the velocity, temperature and the nanoparticle volume fraction profiles for some values of the governing parameters, namely, the plate velocity parameter, Prandtl number, Lewis number, the Brownian motion parameter and the thermophoresis parameter. The results indicate that dual solutions exist when the plate and the free stream move in the opposite directions.     

Heat and Mass Transfer Flow of a Nanofluid over an Inclined Plate under Enhanced Boundary Conditions with Magnetic Field and Thermal Radiation

This article presents the magnetohydrodynamic boundary layer flow, heat and mass transfer characteristics of a nanofluid over an inclined porous vertical plate with thermal radiation and chemical reaction. The new enhanced concentration boundary condition on the surface of the wall is considered in this analysis. The governing nonlinear partial differential equations are transformed into a system of nonlinear ordinary differential equations using the similarity variables and are solved numerically using the finite element method. The effect of key parameters such as magnetic parameter (M), buoyancy ratio (Nr), Prandtl number (Pr), thermal radiation (R), Brownian motion (Nb), thermophoresis (Nt), Lewis number (Le), and chemical reaction parameter (Cr) on velocity, temperature, and concentration distributions is discussed in detail and the results are shown graphically. Furthermore, the impact of these parameters on skin‐friction coefficient, Nusselt number, and Sherwood number is also investigated and the results are shown in tabular form. The developed algorithm is validated with works published previously and was found to be in good agreement. The thermal boundary layer thickness is elevated, whereas the solutal boundary layer thickness retards with the improving values of the Brownian motion parameter (Nb). The rates of nondimensional temperature and concentration both decelerate with higher values of the thermophoresis parameter (Nt).     

Double-diffusive natural convection along a vertical wavy truncated cone in non-Newtonian fluid saturated porous media with thermal and mass stratification

This paper studies the double-diffusive natural convection near a vertical wavy truncated cone in a non-Newtonian fluid saturated porous medium with thermal and mass stratification. The surface of the truncated cone is kept at constant wall temperature and concentration. A coordinate transformation is employed to transform the complex wavy surface to a smooth surface, and the obtained boundary-layer equations are then solved by the cubic spline collocation method. Effects of thermal and concentration stratification parameters, Lewis number, buoyancy ratio, power-law index, and wavy geometry on the heat and mass transfer characteristics are studied. Results show that the streamwise distributions of the local Nusselt number and the local Sherwood number are harmonic curves with a wave number twice the wave number of the surface of the vertical wavy truncated cone. An increase in the power-law index leads to a smaller fluctuation of the local Nusselt and Sherwood numbers. Moreover, increasing the thermal and concentration stratification parameter decreases the buoyancy force and retards the flow, thus decreasing the heat and mass transfer rates between the fluid and the wavy surface of the vertical truncated cone.     

Rayleigh–Benard convection in water-based alumina nanofluid: A numerical study

Rayleigh–Benard (R-B) convection in water-based alumina (Al₂O₃) nanofluid is analyzed based on a single-component non-homogeneous volume fraction model (SCNHM) using the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM). The present model accounts for the slip mechanisms such as Brownian and thermophoresis between the nanoparticle and the base fluid. The average Nusselt number at the bottom wall for pure water is compared to the previous numerical data for natural convection in a cavity and a good agreement is obtained. The parameters considered in this study include the Rayleigh number of the nanofluid, the volume fraction of alumina nanoparticle and the aspect ratio of the cavity. For the Al₂O₃/water nanofluid, it is found that heat transfer rate decreases with an increase of the volume fraction of the nanoparticle. The results are demonstrated and explained with average Nusselt number, isotherms, streamlines, heat lines, and nanoparticle distribution. The effect of nanoparticles on the onset of instability in R-B convection is also analyzed.     

Thermal slip and radiative heat transfer effects on electro‐osmotic magnetonanoliquid peristaltic propulsion through a microchannel

A mathematical study is described to examine the concurrent influence of thermal radiation and thermal wall slip on the dissipative magnetohydrodynamic electro‐osmotic peristaltic propulsion of a viscous nanoliquid in an asymmetric microchannel under the action of an axial electric field and transverse magnetic field. Convective boundary conditions are incorporated in the model and the case of forced convection is studied, that is, thermal and species (nanoparticle volume fraction) buoyancy forces neglected. The heat source and sink effects are also included and the diffusion flux approximation is employed for radiative heat transfer. The transport model comprises the continuity, momentum, energy, nanoparticle volume fraction, and electric potential equations with appropriate boundary conditions. These are simplified by negating the inertial forces and invoking the Debye–Hückel linearization. The resulting governing equations are reduced into a system of nondimensional simultaneous ordinary differential equations, which are solved analytically. Numerical evaluation is conducted with symbolic software (MATLAB). The impact of different control parameters (Hartmann number, electro‐osmosis parameter, slip parameter, Helmholtz–Smoluchowski velocity, Biot numbers, Brinkman number, thermal radiation, and Prandtl number) on the heat, mass, and momentum characteristics (velocity, temperature, Nusselt number, etc) are presented graphically. Increasing Brinkman number is found to elevate temperature magnitudes. For positive Helmholtz–Smoluchowski velocity (reverse axial electrical field) temperature is strongly reduced, whereas for negative Helmholtz–Smoluchowski velocity (aligned axial electrical field), it is significantly elevated. With increasing thermal slip, nanoparticle volume fraction is also increased. Heat source elevates temperatures, whereas heat sink depresses them, across the microchannel span. Conversely, heat sink elevates nanoparticle volume fraction, whereas heat source decreases it. Increasing Hartmann (magnetic) parameter and Prandtl number enhance the nanoparticle volume fraction. Furthermore, with increasing radiation parameter, the Nusselt number is reduced at the extremities of the microchannel, whereas it is elevated at intermediate distances. The results reported provide a good insight into biomimetic energy systems exploiting electromagnetics and nanotechnology, and, furthermore, they furnish a useful benchmark for experimental and more advanced computational multiphysics simulations.     

Second law analysis of pseudo-plastic nanofluid stream past a stretching sheet with a sliding consequence

The entropy generation (second law of thermodynamics) analysis of gyrotactic microorganism flow of power-law nanofluid with slip effects and combined effect of heat and mass transfer past a stretching sheet has been studied. The flow is maintained with Lorentz force and thermal radiation. The governing nonlinear partial differential equations are transformed into ordinary differential equations using similarity transformations. The impact of different physical parameters, such as convective bouncy parameter, power-law parameter, Brownian motion parameter, thermophoresis parameter, and slip parameter for velocity and temperature on the entropy generation number (Ns) are plotted graphically with the help of MATLAB built in bvp4c solver technique. Further, the uniqueness of this study is to find out the ratios of various irreversibilities due to thermal and mass diffusions, momentum diffusion, and microorganism over the total entropy generation rate. Our results showed that the power-law parameter and Brownian motion parameter influenced entropy generation positively. The slip parameter for velocity and temperature and the thermophoresis parameter helps to reduce the entropy production.     

Natural convective boundary-layer flow of a nanofluid past a vertical plate

The natural convective boundary-layer flow of a nanofluid past a vertical plate is studied analytically. The model used for the nanofluid incorporates the effects of Brownian motion and thermophoresis. A similarity solution is presented. This solution depends on a Lewis number Le, a buoyancy-ratio number Nr, a Brownian motion number Nb, and a thermophoresis number Nt. For various values of Pr and Le, the variation of the reduced Nusselt number with Nr, Nb and Nt is expressed by correlation formulas. It was found that the reduced Nusselt number is a decreasing function of each of Nr, Nb and Nt.     

Flow and heat transfer in a porous medium saturated with a Sisko nanofluid over a nonlinearly stretching sheet with heat generation/absorption

This work is focused on steady flow and heat transfer in a porous medium saturated with a Sisko nanofluid (non‐Newtonian power‐law) over a nonlinearly stretching sheet in the presence of heat generation/absorption. Nonlinear PDEs are transformed into a system of coupled nonlinear ODEs with related boundary conditions using similarity transformation. The reduced equations are then solved numerically using the Runge–Kutta–Fehlberg fourth–fifth order method (RKF45) with Maple 14.0 software. The solutions depend on the power‐law index n and the effect of pertinent parameter such as the Brownian motion parameter, thermophoresis parameter, Lewis number, the permeability, and the heat generation/absorption on the dimensionless velocity, temperature, and nanoparticles volume fraction and also on the skin friction, local Nusselt, and Sherwood numbers are produced for values of the influence parameter. A rapprochement of the numerical results of the actual study with formerly published data detected an excellent agreement.     

Heat transfer and buoyancy‐driven convective MHD flow of nanofluids impinging over a thin needle moving in a parallel stream influenced by Prandtl number

The current study focuses on investigating the influence of transverse magnetic field, variable viscosity, buoyancy, variable Prandtl number, viscous dissipation, Joulian dissipation, and heat generation on the flow of nanofluids over thin needle moving in parallel stream. The theory of nanofluids that includes the Buongiorno model featured by slip mechanism, such as Brownian motion and thermophoresis, has been implemented. Further, convective boundary condition and zero mass flux condition are considered. The nondimensionally developed boundary layer equations have been solved by Runge–Kutta–Fehlberg method with shooting technique for different values of parameters. The most relevant outcomes of the present study are that the augmented magnetic field strength, viscosity parameter, buoyancy ratio parameter, and the size of the needle undermine the flow velocity, establishing thicker velocity boundary layer while Richardson number and Brownian motion show opposite trend. Another most important outcome is that increase in the size of the needle, viscous dissipation, convective heating, and heat generation upsurges the fluid temperature, leading to improvement in thermal boundary layer. The effects of different natural parameters on wall shear stress and heat and mass transfer rates have been discussed.     

Double‐Diffusive Convective Transport in a Nanofluid‐Saturated Porous Layer with Cross Diffusion and Variation of Viscosity and Conductivity

The onset of double‐diffusive nanofluid convection in a fluid‐saturated horizontal porous layer is studied with thermal conductivity and viscosity dependent on the nanoparticle volume fraction. The Darcy model has been used for the porous medium, while the nanofluid incorporates the effects of Brownian motion along with thermophoresis. The nanofluid is assumed to be diluted and this enables the porous medium to be treated as a weakly heterogeneous medium with variation in the vertical direction of conductivity and viscosity. In addition, the thermal energy equation includes regular diffusion and cross diffusion terms. The linear stability analysis is based on the normal mode technique, while for nonlinear analysis, minimal representation of the truncated Fourier series representation involving only two terms has been used. It is found that for the stationary mode the Soret parameter, Dufour parameter, viscosity ratio, and conductivity ratio have a stabilizing effect, while the solutal Rayleigh number destabilizes the system. For the oscillatory mode, the Soret parameter, Dufour parameter, and viscosity ratio have a stabilizing effect while the solutal Rayleigh number and conductivity ratio destabilize the system. For steady finite amplitude motions, the heat and mass transport decreases with an increase in the values of the Dufour parameter and solutal Rayleigh number. The Soret parameter enhances the solute concentration Nusselt number while it retards the thermal Nusselt number and concentration Nusselt number. The viscosity ratio and conductivity ratio enhances the heat and mass transports. We also study the effect of time on transient Nusselt numbers which is found to be oscillatory when time is small. However, when time becomes very large, all three transient Nusselt values approach a steady value. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heat Trans Asian Res, 43(7): 628–652, 2014; Published online 11 November 2013 in Wiley Online Library ( wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/htj ). DOI 10.1002/htj.21102