Modified MHD radiative mixed convective nanofluid flow model with consideration of the impact of freezing temperature and molecular diameter

Abstract

Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) deals with the analysis of electrically conducting fluids. The study of nanofluids by considering the influence of MHD phenomena is a topic of great interest from an industrial and technological point of view. Thus, the modified MHD mixed convective, nonlinear, radiative and dissipative problem was modelled over an arc-shaped geometry for Al2O3 + H2O nanofluid at 310 K and the freezing temperature of 273.15 K. Firstly, the model was reduced into a coupled set of ordinary differential equations using similarity transformations. The impact of the freezing temperature and the molecular diameter were incorporated in the energy equation. Then, the Runge-Kutta scheme, along with the shooting technique, was adopted for the mathematical computations and code was written in Mathematica 10.0. Further, a comprehensive discussion of the flow characteristics is provided. The results for the dynamic viscosity, heat capacity and effective density of the nanoparticles were examined for various nanoparticle diameters and volume fractions.