Numerical study on nanofluidic transport mechanism in Ellis flow within curved channel comprising compliant walls subjected to peristaltic activity

Abstract

Peristaltic movement of fluid flows has significant applications in biomedical engineering, medicine, human physiology, etc. Specifically, it is very useful to understand and cure the very common intestinal diseases in human beings. A number of theoretical and empirical models are used to analyze peristaltic movement. In this work, the peristaltic movement of nanofluid is modeled with a non-Newtonian Ellis fluid model in a curved channel with compliant wall properties. The effects of Brownian motion, thermophoresis, and nonlinear radiations are considered in the heat transfer for better thermal analysis. The mathematical modeling of the physical problem yields the nonlinear partial differential equations with boundary conditions. First, the governing partial differential equations are non-dimensionalized, and then the resultant system is simplified by using the assumptions of a small Reynolds number and long wavelength. Then the obtained boundary value problem of differential equations is solved with the built-in Mathematica command NDSolve. The accuracy and reliability of the adopted procedure are verified by comparing the computed results with the reported literature. The impacts of the pertinent parameters (Brownian motion, thermal radiation, mixed convection, and thermophoresis phenomenon) on thermal energy, velocity, concentration, heat transfer rate, and stress at the lower wall are analyzed both in qualitative and quantitative manners. This study revealed some interesting facts, such as the peristaltic-driven motion of nanoliquid is strongly influenced by wall properties (i.e., wall elasticity, mass density, and wall damping). In addition, the flow experienced more resistance in the case of larger wall damping, but larger wall elasticity and mass density provide favorable movement for fluid motion. In addition, mixed convection plays a vital role in heat transfer and nanoparticle concentration in the curved domain. In addition, the curved channel walls have a higher stress factor than straight-plane channels. The results of the current study are very useful to understand many biological phenomena, such as the peristaltic movement of liquid during dialysis, food movement through the intestine, etc.