Impact of Brownian motion and thermophoresis on bioconvective flow of nanoliquids past a variable thickness surface with slip effects

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PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to scrutinize the heat and mass transfer attributes of three-dimensional bio convective flow of nanofluid across a slendering surface with slip effects. The analysis is carried out subject to irregular heat sink/source, thermophoresis and Brownian motion of nanoparticles.Design/methodology/approachAt first, proper transmutations are pondered to metamorphose the basic flow equations as ODEs. The solution of these ODEs is procured by the consecutive application of Shooting and Runge-Kutta fourth order numerical procedures.FindingsThe usual flow fields along with density of motile microorganisms for sundry physical parameters are divulged via plots and scrutinized. Further, the authors analyzed the impact of same parameters on skin friction, heat and mass transfer coefficients and presented in tables. It is discovered that the variable heat sink/source parameters play a decisive role in nature of the heat and mass transfer rates. The density of motile microorganisms will improve if we add Al-Cu alloy particles in regular fluids instead of Al particles solely. A change in thermophoresis and Brownian motion parameters dominates heat and mass transfer performance.Originality/valueTo the best of the knowledge, no author made an attempt to investigate the flow of nanofluids over a variable thickness surface with bio-convection, Brownian motion and slip effects.