Natural convection flow of CNTs-ethylene glycol based micropolar nanofluid along a complex wavy surface

Abstract

The primary goal of this study is to perform the analysis of heat transfer in free convection flow of micropolar nanofluid along a complex roughened surface. A micropolar nanofluid is made by adding nanoparticles namely SWCNTs (single-walled carbon nanotubes) in ethylene glycol (EG) base micropolar fluid. A mathematical model for micropolar nanofluid can be developed in terms of nonlinear partial differential equations by extending Navier-Stokes equations along with micro inertia effects, angular momentum equation and Tiwari and Das model. After using the suitable transformation, the resulting nonlinear PDEs are made dimensionless and solved numerically using finite difference scheme. Micropolar nanofluids have a capability to improve the thermophysical properties and heat transportation capacity instead of base fluids. The impacts of numerous pertinent parameters on velocity, microrotation and temperature profiles also on physical quantities namely wall couple stress, local and average Nusselt numbers, total heat transfer and skin friction coefficient are discussed graphically. It is noted that total heat transfer rate becomes high in case of dominant amplitude of harmonic wave as compared to fundamental. It is also noted that total heat transfer rate decreases by increasing micropolar parameter and can be enhanced by adding SWCNTs in EG based micropolar fluid and that enhancement is reported approximately 27 and 26% in dominant amplitude of fundamental and harmonic waves as compared to ethylene glycol fluid.