Mixed convection in gravity-driven thin nano-liquid film flow with homogeneous–heterogeneous reactions

Abstract

A modified nanofluid model for homogeneous–heterogeneous reactions in a gravity-driven liquid film is proposed based on the assumptions of the homogeneous reaction governed by isothermal cubic autocatalytic kinetics and the heterogeneous reaction given by first-order kinetics. The Buongiorno model is introduced to describe behaviors of nanofluids with the Boussinesq approximation being used for simplification of the buoyancy term. Multiple solutions are captured, whose stabilities are checked and discussed based on the theory of Sturm–Liouville. The influence of various physical parameters on important physical quantities is presented for different cases, including buoyancy assisting, no buoyancy, and buoyancy opposing. Different from previous studies on chemical reactions in which reactants are presumed in nanometer scale, we assume that the chemical species are of regular size, which react with each other in a nanofluid. This configuration makes our model physically more realistic than previous ones.