Computational Modeling of Boundary-Layer Flow of a Nanofluid Past a Nonlinearly Stretching Sheet

In the present investigation, steady two dimensional laminar natural convection flow resulting from non-linear stretching of a flat horizontal plate in a nanofluid is studied numerically. Boungiorno model [ I] is employed that treats the nanofluid as a two-component mixture (base fluid plus nanoparticles), incorporating the effects of Brownian motion and thermophoresis. By appropriate similarity variables, the governing nonlinear partial differential equations of flow are transformed to a set of nonlinear ordinary differential equations. Subsequently they are reduced to a first order system and integrated using Newton Raphson and adaptive Runge-Kutta methods. The computer codes are developed for this numerical analysis in Matlab environment. Dimensionless stream function (s), longitudinal velocity (s'), temperature (.) and nanoparticle volume fraction (f) are computed and illustrated graphically for various values of four dimensionless parameters, namely, Lewis number (Le), stretching parameter (n), Brownian motion Parameter (Nb), and thermophoresis parameter (Nt). The effects of the physical parameters on the rate of heat transfer (-theta'(0)) and mass transfer (-phi'( 0)) is given in tabulated form. The results of the present simulation are in with good agreement with the previous reports available in literature.