Combined Convective Boundary Layer Flow Over a Horizontal Plate Embedded in a Porous Medium Saturated with a Nanofluid

Abstract

A boundary layer analysis is presented for the mixed convection past a horizontal plate in a porous medium saturated with a nano fluid. The prescribed heat and mass flux boundary conditions are considered. The entire regime of the mixed convection is included, as the mixed convection parameter ξ varies from 0 (pure free convection) to 1 (pure forced convection). The transformed nonlinear system of equations is solved by using an implicit infinite 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 Nr, Brownian motion parameter Nb, thermophoresis parameter Nt and Lewis number Le. The dependency of the friction factor, surface heat transfer rate (Nusselt number) and mass transfer rate on these parameters has been discussed.