RADIATION EFFECTS ON AN UNSTEADY NATURAL CONVECTIVE FLOW OF A NANOFLUID PAST AN INFINITE VERTICAL PLATE

An exact analysis is carried out to study the radiation effects on an unsteady natural convective flow of a nanofluid past an impulsively started infinite vertical plate. The nanofluids containing nanoparticles of aluminium oxide, copper, titanium oxide and silver with nanoparticle volume fraction range less than or equal to 0.04 are considered. The partial differential equations governing the flow are solved by Laplace transform technique. The influence of various parameters on velocity and temperature profiles, as well as Nusselt number and skin-friction coefficient, are examined and presented graphically. An increase in radiation parameter and time leads to fall in temperature of the fluid. The presence of nanoparticles and thermal radiation increases the rate of heat transfer and skin friction. The effect of heat transfer is found to be more pronounced in silver water nanofluid than in the other nanofluids. It is observed that the fluid velocity increases with an increase in Grashof number and time. Excellent validation of the present results is achieved with existing results in the literature.