Conference Dates
June 22-27, 2014
Abstract
The effect of temperature dependent viscosity on natural convective boundary-layer flow of a nano-fluid over an isothermal horizontal plate is investigated numerically. The viscosity of the fluid is assumed to have an exponentially decaying dependence on temperature ν=ν0e−b(T−T∞). A similarity analysis is presented for field equations embodying conservation of total mass, momentum, thermal energy and nano-particles. The analysis shows that velocity, temperature and nano-particle volume fraction profiles in the respective boundary layers depend on the viscosity parameter γ besides the pertinent parameters such as buoyancy ratio Nr, Brownian motion Nb, thermophoresis Nt and Lewis number Le. From physical considerations one expects that an increase in the viscosity must result in lower heat transfer rates. Results in accordance with the physical considerations are obtained in this study. The study also investigates the effect of the presence of an internal heat source in the porous medium by considering the internal heat generation term in the energy equation. In the presence of the heat source the heat transfer rate is lower whereas the nanoparticle volume fraction rate is higher than those obtained in the absence of the source term.
Recommended Citation
Shoba Bagai and Chandrashekhar Nishad, "Effect of temperature dependent viscosity on natural convective boundary layer flow over a horizontal plate embedded in a nanofluid saturated porous medium" in "5th International Conference on Porous Media and Their Applications in Science, Engineering and Industry", Prof. Kambiz Vafai, University of California, Riverside; Prof. Adrian Bejan, Duke University; Prof. Akira Nakayama, Shizuoka University; Prof. Oronzio Manca, Seconda Università degli Studi Napoli Eds, ECI Symposium Series, (2014). https://dc.engconfintl.org/porous_media_V/18