Unsteady MHD flow and heat transfer near stagnation point over a stretching/shrinking sheet in porous medium filled with a nanofluid

Abstract

In this article, the unsteady magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) stagnation point flow and heat transfer of a nanofluid over a stretching/shrinking sheet is investigated numerically. The similarity solution is used to reduce the governing system of partial differential equations to a set of nonlinear ordinary differential equations which are then solved numerically using the fourth-order Runge–Kutta method with shooting technique. The ambient fluid velocity, stretching/shrinking velocity of sheet, and the wall temperature are assumed to vary linearly with the distance from the stagnation point. To investigate the influence of various pertinent parameters, graphical results for the local Nusselt number, the skin friction coefficient, velocity profile, and temperature profile are presented for different values of the governing parameters for three types of nanoparticles, namely copper, alumina, and titania in the water-based fluid. It is found that the dual solution exists for the decelerating flow. Numerical results show that the extent of the dual solution domain increases with the increases of velocity ratio, magnetic parameter, and permeability parameter whereas it remains constant as the value of solid volume fraction of nanoparticles changes. Also, it is found that permeability parameter has a greater effect on the flow and heat transfer of a nanofluid than the magnetic parameter.