Combined effect of buoyancy force and Navier slip on MHD flow of a nanofluid over a convectively heated vertical porous plate

Abstract

We examine the effect of magnetic field on boundary layer flow of an incompressible electrically conducting water-based nanofluids past a convectively heated vertical porous plate with Navier slip boundary condition. A suitable similarity transformation is employed to reduce the governing partial differential equations into nonlinear ordinary differential equations, which are solved numerically by employing fourth-order Runge-Kutta with a shooting technique. Three different water-based nanofluids containing copper (Cu), aluminium oxide (Al2O3), and titanium dioxide (TiO 2) are taken into consideration. Graphical results are presented and discussed quantitatively with respect to the influence of pertinent parameters, such as solid volume fraction of nanoparticles, magnetic field parameter (Ha), buoyancy effect (Gr), Eckert number (Ec), suction/injection parameter (fw), Biot number (Bi), and slip parameter (β), on the dimensionless velocity, temperature, skin friction coefficient, and heat transfer rate. © 2013 Winifred Nduku Mutuku-Njane and Oluwole Daniel Makinde.