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