Steady laminar mixed convection stagnation-point flow of a nanofluid over a vertical permeable surface in the presence of a magnetic field

Abstract

A similarity solution for a steady laminar mixed convection boundary layer flow of a nanofluid near the stagnation point on a vertical permeable plate with a magnetic field and a buoyancy force is obtained by solving a system of nonlinear ordinary differential equations. These equations are solved analytically by using a new kind of a powerful analytic technique for nonlinear problems, namely, the homotopy analysis method (HAM). Three different types of nanoparticles, namely, copper (Cu), alumina (Al2O3), and titanium oxide (TiO2), with water as the base fluid are considered. The influence of the volume fraction of nanoparticles, permeability parameter, magnetic parameter, and mixed convection parameter on the surface shear stress and surface heat transfer, as well as on the velocity and temperature profiles, is considered. It is observed that the skin friction coefficient and the local Nusselt number increase with the nanoparticle volume fraction for all types of nanoparticles considered in this study. The greatest values of the skin friction coefficient and the local Nusselt number are obtained for Cu nanoparticles.