Thermal dispersion effects on convective heat and mass transfer in an Ostwald de Waele nanofluid flow in porous media

Abstract

In this paper we investigate the effects of thermal dispersion on non-Newtonian power-law nanofluid flow over an impermeable vertical plate. We use a mathematical model for the nanofluid that incorporates the effects of nanoparticle Brownian motion and thermophoresis. The non-Newtonian nature of the fluid is modeled by the power-law index n, and both cases of shear thinning and thickening are investigated. The governing set of equations is solved numerically using the shooting technique. The effects of physical and fluid parameters on the properties are determined for both instances of aiding and opposing buoyancy force. We show, inter alia, that for fixed thermal dispersion coefficient values, the fluid temperature within the boundary layer decreases as the power-law index increases for both aiding and opposing buoyancy case.