Numerical solution to natural convection over an inclined wavy surface embedded in a porous medium saturated with a nanofluid

Abstract

This article presents the study of natural convection in a nanofluid along an inclined wavy surface embedded in a porous medium. A coordinate transformation is employed to transform the complex wavy surface to a smooth surface. The governing equations are transformed into a set of ordinary differential equations using the similarity transformation. These nonlinear ordinary differential equations are reduced to a system of linear differential equations using the successive linearization method. The Chebyshev pseudo spectral method is then used to solve the linearized differential equations. The present results are compared with previously published work and are found to be in very good agreement. The effects of Brownian motion parameter, thermophoresis parameter, amplitude of the wavy surface, angle of inclination of the wavy surface on the non-dimensional velocity, temperature, nanoparticle volume fraction, heat and nanoparticle mass transfer rates are studied and presented graphically.