A Stability Analysis of Solutions in Boundary Layer Flow and Heat Transfer of Carbon Nanotubes over a Moving Plate with Slip Effect

Abstract

The flow and heat transfer characteristics of both single-wall and multi-wall carbon nanotubes (CNTs) with water and kerosene as base fluid on a moving plate with slip effect are studied numerically. By employing similarity transformation, governing equations are transformed into a set of nonlinear ordinary equations. These equations are solved numerically using the bvp4c solver in Matlab which is a very efficient finite difference method. The influence of numerous parameters such as nanoparticle volume fraction, velocity ratio parameter and first order slip parameter on velocity, temperature, skin friction and heat transfer rate are further explored and discussed in the form of graphical and tabular forms. The results reveal that dual solutions exist when the plate and free stream move in the opposite direction and slip parameter was found to widen the range of the possible solutions. However, skin friction coefficients decrease, whereas the heat transfer increases in the presence of slip parameter. Single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) give higher skin friction and heat transfer compared to multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) due to the fact that they have higher density and thermal conductivity. A stability analysis is carried out to determine the stability of the solutions obtained.