Nanofluid flow over an unsteady stretching surface in presence of thermal radiation

Abstract

This paper investigates the unsteady boundary layer flow of a nanofluid over a heated stretching sheet with thermal radiation. The transport model employed includes the effects of Brownian motion and thermophoresis. The unsteadiness in the flow field is caused by the time-dependence of the stretching velocity, free stream velocity and the surface temperature. The unsteady boundary layer equations are transformed to a system of non-linear ordinary differential equations and solved numerically using a shooting method together with Runge–Kutta–Fehlberg scheme. The clear liquid results from this study are in agreement with the results reported in the literature. It is found that the heat transfer rate at the surface increases in the presence of Brownian motion but reverse effect occurs for thermophoresis.