Mixed Convection Along a Vertical Plate Embedded in a Porous Medium Saturated with a Nanofluid: Entire Regime

摘要

Purpose - A boundary layer analysis is presented for the mixed convection past a vertical plate in a porous medium saturated with a nano fluid. The entire regime of the mixed convection is included, as the mixed convection parameter of ξ varies from 0 (pure free convection) to 1 (pure forced convection). The transformed nonlinear system of equations is solved by using an implicit finite difference method. Numerical results for friction factor, surface heat transfer rate and mass transfer rate have been presented for parametric variations of the buoyancy ratio parameter N_r, Brownian motion parameter N_b, thermophoresis parameter N_t and Lewis number Le. The dependency of the friction factor, surface heat transfer rate (Nusselt number) and mass transfer rate (Sherwood number) on these parameters has been discussed. The Brownian motion and thermophoresis of nano particles increases the effective thermal conductivity of the nanofluid. Both Brownian diffusion and thermophoresis give rise to cross diffusion terms that are similar to the familiar Soret and Dufour cross diffusion terms that arise with a binary fluid.