Thermo-Solutal Convection of a Nanofluid Utilizing Fourier’s-Type Compass Conditions

Abstract

Nanotechnology has infiltrated into duct design in parallel with many other fields of mechanical, medical and energy engineering. Motivated by the excellent potential of nanofluids, a subset of materials engineered at the nanoscale, in the present work, a new mathematical model is developed for natural convection in a vertical duct containing nanofluid. Numerical scrutiny for the double-diffusive free and forced convection within a duct encumbered with nanofluid is performed. Buongiorno’s model is deployed to define the nanofluid. Robin boundary conditions are used to define the surface boundary conditions. Thermal and concentration equations envisage the viscous, Brownian motion, thermosphores of the nanofluid, Soret and Dufour effects. Using the Boussi-nesq approximation the solutal buoyancy effect as a result of gradients in concentration are incorporated. The conservation equations which are nonlinear are numerically estimated using fourth order Runge-Kutta methodology and analytically ratifying regular perturbation scheme. The mass, heat, nanoparticle concentration and species concentration fields on eight dimensionless physical parameters such as thermal and mass Grashof numbers, Brownian motion parameter, thermal parameter, Prandtl number, Eckert number, Schmidt parameter, and Soret parameter are calculated. The impact of these parameters are outlined pictorially. The velocity and temperature fields are boosted with the thermal Grashof number. The Soret and the Schemidt parameters reduces the nanoparticle volume fraction but it heightens the momentum, temperature and concentration. At the cold wall thermal and concentration Grashof numbers reduces the Nusselt values but they increase the Nusselt values at the hot wall. The reversal consequence was attained at the hot plate. The perturbation and Runge-Kutta solutions are equal in the nonappearance of Prandtl number. The (E. Zanchini, Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer 41, 3949 (1998)). results are restored for the regular fluid. The heat transfer rate is high for nanofluid when matched with regular fluid.