Thermo-Solutal Nonlinear Convection in a Nanofluid Flow Past a Porous Plate in the Presence of Heat Generation/Absorption

Abstract

The aim of the present study is to analyze the effects of thermo-solutal nonlinear convection in a nanofluid flow past a vertical permeable plate in the presence of heat generation/absorption and a first-order chemical reaction. The effects of Brownian motion and thermophoresis have been included in this study. By using similarity transformations, the ordinary differential equations (ODEs) are obtained from the governing partial differential equations (PDEs). Then by using a Runge-Kutta (R-K) method coupled with a shooting technique, numerical solutions are obtained. The effects of the relevant physical parameters on the velocity, the temperature, and the nanoparticle volume fraction are analyzed. When the magnitude of the thermal buoyancy parameter and solutal buoyancy parameter increase, the fluid velocity initially rises rapidly and then diminishes. But the temperature and concentration fields reduce. Near the plate, the fluid velocity is found to enhance with increasing values of the thermo-quadratic convection parameter as well as with the rising values of the solutal-quadratic convection parameter. However, both the temperature and the nanoparticle volume fraction reduce. The results of this study are interesting and motivating for further investigations on the problem for different situations and with different geometries.