Effect of dissipation on free convective flow of a non-Newtonian nanofluid in a porous medium with gyrotactic microorganisms

Abstract

This study is devoted to investigate the influences of viscous dissipation on free convective boundary layer flow of a non-Newtonian power law nanofluid over an isothermal vertical flat plate embedded in a porous medium. The present model contains both nanoparticles and gyrotactic microorganisms. The governing partial differential equations are converted to ordinary differential equations using suitable similarity transformations. The effects of nanofluid and bioconvection parameters on the dimensionless velocity, temperature, concentration of nanoparticles, and density of motile microorganisms as well as on the rate of heat transfer, nanoparticle volume fraction, and the rate of density of motile microorganism are investigated. The present results show that the nanofluid and bioconvection parameters have strong effects on the flow, heat and mass transfer, and motile microorganism characteristics.