Mixed convection boundary-layer flow about an isothermal solid sphere in a nanofluid

Abstract

The steady mixed convection boundary-layer flow of a nanofluid about a solid sphere with constant surface temperature has been studied for cases of both assisting and opposing flows. The resulting system of nonlinear partial differential equations is solved numerically using an implicit finite-difference scheme known as the Keller-box method. The solutions for the flow and heat-transfer characteristics are evaluated numerically for various values of the parameters, namely the nanoparticle volume fraction φ and the mixed convection parameter λ at Prandtl numbers Pr=0.7 and 6.2. The three different types of nanoparticles considered are Al2O3, Cu and TiO2, using water-based fluid with Pr=6.2. It is found that for each particular nanoparticle, as the nanoparticle volume fraction φ increases, the skin friction coefficient and the heat-transfer rate at the surface also increase. This leads to an increase in the value of the mixed convection parameter λ, which at first gives no separation.