Exploration of activation energy and binary chemical reaction effects on nano Casson fluid flow with thermal and exponential space-based heat source

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of binary chemical reaction and activation energy on nano Casson liquid flow past a stretched plate with non-linear radiative heat, and also, the effect of a novel exponential space-dependent heat source (ESHS) aspect along with thermal-dependent heat source (THS) effect in the analysis of heat transfer in nanofluid. Comparative analysis is carried out between the flows with linear radiative heat process and non-linear radiative heat process.Design/methodology/approachA similarity transformation technique is utilised to access the ODEs from the governed PDEs. The manipulation of subsequent non-linear equations is carried out by a well-known numerical approach called Runge–Kutta–Fehlberg scheme. Obtained solutions are briefly discussed with the help of graphical and tabular illustrations.FindingsThe effects of various physical parameters on temperature, nanoparticles volume fraction and velocity fields within the boundary layer are discussed for two different flow situations, namely, flow with linear radiative heat and flow with non-linear radiative heat. It is found that an irregular heat source/sink (ESHS and THS) and non-linear solar radiation play a vital role in the enhancement of the temperature distributions.Originality/valueThe problem is relatively original to study the effects of activation energy and binary chemical reaction along with a novel exponential space-based heat source on laminar boundary flow past a stretched plate in the presence of non-linear Rosseland radiative heat.