Hydromagnetic Stability of Metallic Nanofluids (Cu-Water and Ag-Water) Using Darcy-Brinkman Model

Abstract

Thermal convection of a nanofluid layer in the presence of imposed vertical magnetic field saturated by a porous medium is investigated for both-free, rigid-free, and both-rigid boundaries using Darcy-Brinkman model. The effects of Brownian motion and thermophoretic forces due to the presence of nanoparticles and Lorentz’s force term due to the presence of magnetic field have been considered in the momentum equations along with Maxwell’s equations. Keeping in mind applications of flow through porous medium in geophysics, especially in the study of Earth’s core, and the presence of nanoparticles therein, the hydromagnetic stability of a nanofluid layer in porous medium is considered in the present formulation. An analytical investigation is made by applying normal mode technique and Galerkin type weighted residuals method and the stability of Cu-water and Ag-water nanofluids is compared. Mode of heat transfer is through stationary convection without the occurrence of oscillatory motions. Stability of the system gets improved appreciably by raising the Chandrasekhar number as well as Darcy number whereas increase in porosity hastens the onset of instability. Further, stability of the system gets enhanced as we proceed from both-free boundaries to rigid-free and to both-rigid boundaries.