Nonlinear Radiation and Variable Viscosity Effects on Free Convection of a Power-Law Nanofluid Over a Truncated Cone in Porous Media With Zero Nanoparticles Flux and Internal Heat Generation

Abstract

Abstract This study used numerical analysis to investigate the effects of nonlinear radiation and variable viscosity on free convection of a power-law nanofluid over a vertical truncated cone in porous media with Rosseland diffusion approximation considering zero nanoparticles flux and internal heat generation. The internal heat generation is of an exponential decaying form and the viscosity of the fluid is assumed to follow Reynolds viscosity model. The surface boundary conditions of vertical truncated cone is maintained at the uniform wall temperature (UWT) and the zero nanoparticle flux (ZNF) to cause the results to be more realistic and useful. The nanofluid model considered the effects of Brownian motion and thermophoresis. The nonsimilar governing equations are obtained by using a suitable coordinate transformation and then solved by Keller box method (KBM). Comparisons with previously published work obtained good agreement. Graphical and tabular presentations of numerical data for the dimensionless temperature profile and the local Nusselt number were presented for main parameters: dimensionless streamwise coordinate, thermophoresis parameter, Lewis number, radiation parameter, surface temperature parameter, viscosity parameter, power-law index of the non-Newtonian fluid, and internal heat generation coefficient. The local Nusselt number increased when the following parameters were increased: radiation parameter, surface temperature parameter, viscosity parameter, power-law index of the non-Newtonian fluid, and dimensionless streamwise coordinate. In contrast, the local Nusselt number decreased when the following parameters were increased: internal heat generation coefficient, thermophoresis parameter, and Lewis number. Besides, the physical aspects of the problem are discussed in details.