Natural Convective Boundary Layer Flow of Nanofluids Above an Isothermal Horizontal Plate

Abstract

The natural convective boundary layer flow of a nanofluid over an isothermal horizontal plate is studied analytically. The model used for the nanofluid accounts for the effects of Brownian motion and thermophoresis. The analysis shows that the velocity, temperature, and nanoparticle volume fraction profiles in the respective boundary layers depend not only on the Prandtl number (Pr) and Lewis number (Le) but also on three additional dimensionless parameters: the Brownian motion parameter Nb, the buoyancy ratio parameter Nr and the thermophoresis parameter Nt. The velocity, temperature, and nanoparticle volume fraction profiles for the nanofluid are found to have a weak dependence on the values of Nb, Nr, and Nt. The effect of the above-mentioned parameters on the local skin-friction coefficient and Nusselt number has been studied extensively. It has been observed that as Nr increases, the local skin-friction coefficient decreases whereas local Nusselt number remains almost constant. As Nb or Nt increases, the local skin-friction coefficient increases whereas the local Nusselt number decreases.