MHD stagnation point flow of a water-based copper nanofluid past a flat plate with solar radiation effect

Abstract

Due to many biological and technical applications, including microelectronics, heat exchangers, cancer therapy, process industries, solar collectors and power production, researchers have been more interested in the mechanism of heat transfer involving nanomaterials. A contemporary method to increase the thermal conductivity of various cooling fluids is the use of nanomaterials. Many researches suggest that the thermal conductivity of nanoliquids; solid nanoparticles combined with a base fluid, is expressively greater than that of conventional fluids. This work presents the theoretical investigation of magnetohydrodynamic stagnation point flow of non-Newtonian nanofluid flow past flat plate. The applications of solar radiation towards water-based copper nanoparticles are highlighted in this study. The system of PDEs is transmuted into the system of ODEs by mean of suitable similarity variable. Analytical solution of the present analysis has been performed with the help of HAM technique. The impacts of physical factors on the flow profiles, skin friction coefficient, heat, and mass transfer rates are calculated. It is significant to note that the default concentration is weighted by 4% throughout this analysis. Also in this analysis, we examined the temperature and heat transfer rate for the presence and absence of solar radiation. It is found that the greater nanoparticles volume fraction of the water-based copper nanoparticles has accelerated the flow profiles for the absence of magnetic field. However, for the presence of strong magnetic field, the velocity, and temperature of the water-based copper nanoparticles have significantly reduced. Due to the incidence of Lorentz force, the velocity of the water-based copper nanoparticles has deteriorated, while the temperature profile has augmented. It is found that the solar radiation has always dominant impression on temperature of the water based copper nanoparticles.