Mixed convection flow from a horizontal circular cylinder embedded in a porous medium filled by a nanofluid: Buongiorno–Darcy model

Abstract

Steady mixed convection boundary layer flow from an isothermal horizontal circular cylinder embedded in a porous medium filled with a nanofluid has been studied for both cases of a heated and cooled cylinder using the Buongiorno–Darcy mathematical nanofluid model. The resulting system of nonlinear partial differential equations is solved numerically using an implicit finite-difference scheme. The solutions for the flow and heat transfer characteristics are evaluated numerically for various values of the governing parameters, namely the constant mixed convection parameter λ, the traditional Lewis number Le, the buoyancy ratio parameter Nr, the Brownian motion parameter Nb and the thermophoresis parameter Nt. It is found that in the present case of the porous medium flow, the separation is always suppressed at negative values of λ. When λ changes from −2.1 to 0, one has a “heating” of the cylinder, but a heating in the negative range of λ (λ < 0). However, for a clear (Newtonian) fluid, Merkin (1977) found that heating the cylinder (λ > 0) delays the separation of the boundary layer and if the cylinder is hot enough (large values of λ > 0), then it is suppressed completely at a positive value of λ, somewhere between 0.88 and 0.89. On the other hand, cooling the cylinder (λ < 0) brings the boundary layer separation point nearer to the lower stagnation point and for a sufficiently cold cylinder (large values of λ < 0) there will not be a boundary layer on the cylinder.