Soret and Dufour effects on free convection flow of non-Newtonian fluids along a vertical plate embedded in a porous medium with thermal radiation

This article numerically studies the combined laminar free convection flow with thermal radiation and mass transfer of non-Newtonian power-law fluids along a vertical plate within a porous medium. The solution takes the diffusion-thermo (Dufour), thermal-diffusion (Soret), thermal radiation and power-law fluid index effects into consideration. The governing boundary layer equations along with the boundary conditions are first cast into a dimensionless form by a similarity transformation and the resulting coupled differential equations are then solved by the differential quadrature method (DQM). The effects of the radiation parameter R, the power-law index n, the Dufour number D_f, and the Soret number S_r on the fluid flow, thermal and concentration fields are discussed in detail. The results indicate that when the buoyancy ratio of concentration to temperature is positive, N > 0, the local Nusselt number increases with an increase in the power-law index and the Soret number or a decrease in the radiation parameter and the Dufour number. In addition, the local Sherwood number for different values of the controlling parameters is also obtained.     

Effect of variable viscosity on mixed convection boundary layer flow over a vertical surface embedded in a porous medium

The steady mixed convection boundary layer flow over a vertical impermeable surface embedded in a porous medium when the viscosity of the fluid varies inversely as a linear function of the temperature is studied. Both cases of assisting and opposing flows are considered. The transformed boundary layer equations are solved numerically by a finite difference method. Numerical results for the flow and heat transfer characteristics are obtained for various values of the mixed convection parameter ε and the variable viscosity parameter θ_e. It has been found that in the opposing flow case, dual solutions exist and boundary separation occurs.     

MHD Boundary Layer Flow of a Nanofluid Over an Exponentially Stretching Sheet in the Presence of Radiation

Effects of thermal radiation on the steady laminar magnetohydrodynamic boundary layer flow of a nanofluid over an exponentially stretching sheet is studied theoretically. The governing boundary layer equations of the problem are formulated and transformed into ordinary differential equations, using a similarity transformation. The resulting ordinary differential equations are solved numerically by the shooting method. The effects of the parameters, namely, the magnetic parameter M, radiation parameter N_R, and the solid volume fraction parameter ?, are discussed and presented in detail. Different types of nanoparticles namely, Cu, Ag, Al₂O₃, and TiO₂ with the base fluid water, are studied. It is found that the nanoparticles with low thermal conductivity, TiO₂ have better enhancement on heat transfer, compared to Cu, Ag, and Al₂O₃. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heat Trans Asian Res, 43(4): 321–331, 2014; Published online 3 October 2013 in Wiley Online Library ( wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/htj ). DOI 10.1002/htj.21077     

Radiation effect on the flow and heat transfer over an unsteady stretching sheet

The effect of radiation on the heat and fluid flow over an unsteady stretching surface is analyzed. Using a similarity transformation the governing time dependent boundary layer equations for momentum and thermal energy are reduced to a set of ordinary differential equations. The resulting three-parameter problem is solved numerically for some representative values of the unsteadiness parameter A, the radiation parameter R and Prandtl number Pr. It is shown that the heat transfer rate is increased with increasing R, A and Pr. Also the effect of radiation parameter on the heat transfer rate is found to be more noticeable at larger values of A and Pr.     

Conjugate heat transfer analysis of a heat generating vertical plate

This paper mainly deals with conjugate heat transfer problem pertinent to rectangular fuel element of a nuclear reactor dissipating heat into an upward moving stream of liquid sodium. Introducing boundary layer approximations, the equations governing the flow and thermal fields in the fluid domain are solved simultaneously along with two-dimensional energy equation in the solid domain by satisfying the continuity of temperature and heat flux at the solid–fluid interface. The boundary layer equations are discretized using fully implicit finite difference scheme so as to adopt marching technique solution procedure, while second-order central difference scheme is employed to discretize the energy equation in the solid domain and the resulting system of finite difference equations are solved using Line-by-Line Gauss–Seidel iterative solution procedure. Numerical results are presented for a wide range of parameters such as aspect ratio, A_r, conduction–convection parameter, N_cc, heat generation parameter, Q, and flow Reynolds number, Re. It is concluded that there exist an upper or a lower limiting value of these parameters above or below which the temperature in the fuel element crosses its allowable limit. It is also found that an increase in Re results in considerable increase in overall heat dissipation rate from the fuel element.     

Laminar mixed convection boundary layers induced by a linearly stretching permeable surface

The boundary layer flow on a linearly moving permeable vertical surface is studied when the buoyancy force assists or opposes the flow. Similarity and local similarity solutions are obtained for the boundary layer equations subject to power law temperature and velocity variation. The effect of various governing parameters, such as Prandtl number Pr, injection parameter d, and the mixed convection parameter λ=Gr_x/Re_x², which determine the velocity and temperature distributions, the heat transfer coefficient, and the shear stress at the surface are studied. The heat transfer coefficient increases as λ assisting the flow for all d for uniformly or linearly heated surface and as Pr increases it becomes almost independent of λ. However, as the temperature inversely proportional to the distance up the surface, the buoyancy has no effects on the heat transfer coefficient. Critical buoyancy parameter values are obtained for vanished shear stress and for predominate natural convection. Critical values are also presented for predominate buoyancy shear stress at the surface for assisting or opposing flow. A closed form analytical solution is also presented as a special case of the energy equation.     

Unsteady stagnation-point flow over a plate moving along the direction of flow impingement

Unsteady plane and axisymmetric stagnation flow of an incompressible viscous fluid on the body that moves along the oncoming flow with a time-dependent velocity is studied in this work. Similarity solutions for the full Navier–Stokes equations are obtained and the results of the flow velocity, shear stress and stream lines are reported for both plane two dimensional flow and axisymmetric flow. The results show that the features of the similar boundary flow highly depends on a characteristic parameter β. There exists a critical value β_c below which no similarity solution to the flow is found. When β_c < β < 0, two solution branches exist and different flow patterns appear for each branch. Flow with monophonically growing velocity, reversed flow and flow with S-shaped velocity are obtained for various values of β. The boundary layer thickness of the plane and axisymmetric flows is tabulated, the streamlines of the flow are demonstrated, and the shear stress over the boundary layer is also discussed.     

Unsteady MHD Mixed Convective Boundary‐Layer Slip Flow and Heat Transfer with Thermal Radiation and Viscous Dissipation

A numerical analysis has been carried out to investigate the problem of MHD boundary‐layer flow and heat transfer of a viscous incompressible fluid over a moving vertical permeable stretching sheet with velocity and temperature slip boundary condition. A problem formulation is developed in the presence of radiation, viscous dissipation, and buoyancy force. A similarity transformation is used to reduce the governing boundary‐layer equations to coupled higher‐order nonlinear ordinary differential equations. These equations are solved numerically using the fourth‐order Runge–Kutta method along with shooting technique. The effects of the governing parameters such as Prandtl number, buoyancy parameter, slip parameter, magnetic parameter, Eckert Number, suction, and radiation parameter on the velocity and temperature profiles are discussed and shown by plotting graphs. It is found that the temperature is a decreasing function of the slip parameter S_T. The results also indicate that the cooling rate of the sheet can be improved by increasing the buoyancy parameter. In addition the numerical results for the local skin friction coefficient and local Nusselt number are computed and presented in tabular form. The numerical results are compared and found to be in good agreement with previously published results on special cases of the problem. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heat Trans Asian Res, 43(5): 412–426, 2014; Published online 3 October 2013 in Wiley Online Library ( wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/htj ). DOI 10.1002/htj.21086     

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).     

Nonlinear radiation on Maxwell fluid in a convective heat transfer with viscous dissipation and activation energy

The present analysis addresses linear and nonlinear radiation effects in hydrodynamic viscous Maxwell fluid flow on a unidirectional stretching surface through viscous dissipation. The relaxation effect is considered in the mathematical model, which elucidates mass transport mechanisms under binary chemical reaction and activation energy. Mathematical modeling contains nonlinear partial differential equations using boundary conditions. Appropriate transformations convert the partial differential equations into ordinary differential equations. Numerical solutions for regular differential equations are brought by Runge–Kutta–Fehlberg numerical quadrature and a shooting method with a tolerance level of 10⁻⁹. The influence of physical variables, such as Deborah relaxation number, rotation parameter, Biot number, activation energy parameter, reaction rate parameter, Eckert number, and Prandtl number are investigated. Increasing the Biot number improves the temperature region in the boundary layer. With high rotation, the increasing Deborah number enhances the fluid temperature substantially throughout the boundary layer.     

Unsteady boundary layer flow of a micropolar fluid near the rear stagnation point of a plane surface

The growth of the boundary layer flow of a viscous and incompressible micropolar fluid started impulsively from rest near the rear stagnation point of a two-dimensional plane surface is studied theoretically. The transformed non-similar boundary-layer equations are solved numerically using a very efficient finite-difference method known as Keller-box method. This method may present well-behaved solutions for the transient (small time) solution up to the separation boundary layer flow. Numerical results are given for the reduced velocity and microrotation profiles, as well as for the skin friction coefficient when the material parameter K takes the values K=0 (Newtonian fluid), 0.5, 1, 1.1, 1.5, 2, 2.5 and 3 with the boundary condition for microrotation n=0 (strong concentration of microelements) and n=1/2 (weak concentration of microelements), respectively. Important features of these flow characteristics are shown on graphs and in tables.     

The boundary layers of an unsteady stagnation-point flow in a nanofluid

The boundary layer of an unsteady two-dimensional stagnation-point flow of a nanofluid is further investigated. The similarity equations are solved numerically for three types of nanoparticles, namely copper (Cu), alumina (Al₂O₃), and titania (TiO₂) in the water based fluid with Prandtl number Pr = 6.2. The skin friction coefficient, the local Nusselt number, and the velocity and temperature profiles are presented and discussed. Effects of the solid volume fraction parameter φ on the fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics are thoroughly examined. Interesting observation is that there are dual solutions seen for negative values of the unsteadiness parameter A (decelerating flow with A < 0).     

Soret effect on the boundary layer flow regime in a vertical porous enclosure subject to horizontal heat and mass fluxes

The combined thermo- and double-diffusive convection in a vertical tall porous cavity subject to horizontal heat and mass fluxes was investigated analytically and numerically using the Darcy model with the Boussinesq approximation. The investigation focused on the effect of Soret diffusion on the boundary layer flow regime. The governing parameters were the thermal Rayleigh number, R_T, the Lewis number, Le, the buoyancy ratio, N, the Soret parameter, M, which characterized the Soret effect, and the aspect ratio of the enclosure, A_r. The results demonstrated the existence of a boundary layer flow solution for which the Soret parameter had a strong effect on the heat and mass transfer characteristics. For M ≠ 1 and M ≠ −1/Le, the profiles of the vertical velocity component, v, temperature, T, and solute concentration, S, exhibited boundary layer behaviors at high Rayleigh numbers. Furthermore, as R_T increased, the temperature and solute concentration became vertically and linearly stratified in the core region of the enclosure. The thermo-diffusion effect on the boundary layer thickness, δ, was discussed for a wide range of the governing parameters. It was demonstrated analytically that the thickness of the boundary layer could either increase or decrease when the Soret parameter was varied, depending on the sign of the buoyancy ratio. The effect of R_T on the fluid flow properties and heat and mass transfer characteristics was also investigated.     

Heat transfer in porous cavity under the influence of radiation and viscous dissipation

Heat transfer under the influence of radiation and viscous dissipation in a square cavity filled with saturated porous medium is analysed. The flow is assumed to follow Darcy law. The governing equations are non-dimensionalised and solved numerically using finite element method. Left vertical surface of the square cavity is maintained at isothermal temperature T_h and right vertical surface at T_c. Results are presented in terms of Nusselt number at hot and cold wall of the cavity for various values of viscous dissipation parameter and radiation parameter. It is seen that the average Nusselt number at hot as well as cold wall increases with increase in radiation parameter.     

Natural convection in a square porous annulus

The current study is focused to investigate the natural convective heat transfer characteristics in a porous square annulus. Finite element method is used as a tool to simplify the partial differential equations that govern the heat and fluid flow characteristics inside the porous medium. A simple three noded triangular element is used to divide the porous domain into smaller segments known as elements. The algebraic set of equations resulting from the finite element equation are assembled into a global matrix and then solved iteratively to get the solution variables. Thermal equilibrium as well as non equilibrium in porous domain is considered. The effect of various geometric and physical parameters are investigated. The boundary conditions are such that the inner walls of the annulus are heated isothermally to temperature T_h, and the outer surfaces are exposed to cool temperature T_c. The width ratio defined as the ratio of hollow portion to the length of the cavity is varied from 0.125 to 0.875. Results are discussed with respect to width ratio, Rayleigh number, radiation parameter and viscous dissipation parameter.     

Heat and mass transfer of MHD Jeffrey nanofluid flow through a porous media past an inclined plate with chemical reaction,radiation, and Soret effects

This paper investigates the heat and mass transfer of an unsteady, magnetohydrodynamic incompressible water-based nanofluid (Cu and TiO₂) flow over a stretching sheet in a transverse magnetic field with thermal radiation Soret effects in the presence of heat source and chemical reaction. The governing differential equations are transformed into a set of nonlinear ordinary differential equations and solved using a regular perturbation technique with appropriate boundary conditions for various physical parameters. The effects of different physical parameters on the dimensionless velocity, temperature, and concentration profiles are depicted graphically and analyzed in detail. Finally, numerical values of the physical quantities, such as the local skin-friction coefficient, the Nusselt number, and the Sherwood number, are presented in tabular form. It is concluded that the resultant velocity reduces with increasing Jeffrey parameter and magnetic field parameter. Results describe that the velocity and temperature diminish with enhancing the thermal radiation. Both velocity and concentration are enhanced with increases of the Soret parameter. Also, it is noticed that the solutal boundary layer thickness decreases with an increase in chemical reaction parameters. This is because chemical molecular diffusivity reduces for higher values of chemical reaction parameter. Also, water-based TiO₂ nanofluids possess higher velocity than water-based Cu nanofluids. Comparisons with previously published work performed and the results are found to be in excellent agreement. This fluid flow model has several industrial applications in the field of chemical, polymer, medical science, and so forth.     

Conjugate conduction-forced convection heat transfer analysis of a rectangular nuclear fuel element with non-uniform volumetric energy generation

The main objective of this paper is to present a comparative study of uniform and non-uniform volumetric energy generation in a rectangular nuclear fuel element washed by upward moving stream of liquid sodium. Employing finite difference schemes, the boundary layer equations governing the flow and thermal fields in the fluid domain are solved simultaneously with two-dimensional energy equation in the solid domain by satisfying the continuity of temperature and heat flux at the solid–fluid interface. Numerical results are presented for a wide range of aspect ratio, A_r, conduction–convection parameter, N_cc, total energy generation parameter, Q_t, and flow Reynolds number, Re_H. It is concluded that for the same total energy generation, a somewhat realistic non-uniform volumetric energy generation puts greater restriction on the thermal power generation as compared to the idealistic uniform volumetric energy generation. Further, it is found that despite the total energy generation being the same for two cases, the non-uniform volumetric energy generation within the fuel element results in considerably higher energy dissipation rate.     

Flow and heat transfer of a third grade fluid past an exponentially stretching sheet with partial slip boundary condition

Non-Newtonian boundary layer flow and heat transfer over an exponentially stretching sheet with partial slip boundary condition has been studied in this paper. The flow is subject to a uniform transverse magnetic field. The heat transfer analysis has been carried out for two heating processes, namely (i) with prescribed surface temperature (PST), and (ii) prescribed heat flux (PHF). Suitable similarity transformations are used to reduce the resulting highly nonlinear partial differential equations into ordinary differential equations. An effective second order numerical scheme has been adopted to solve the obtained differential equations. The important finding in this communication is the combined effects of the partial slip and the third grade fluid parameters on the velocity, skin-friction coefficient and the temperature boundary layer. It is found that the third grade fluid parameter β increases the momentum boundary layer thickness and decreases the thermal boundary layer thickness.