A NUMERICAL STUDY OF NANOFLUID FLOW OVER A POROUS VERTICAL PLATE WITH INTERNAL HEAT GENERATION AND NONLINEAR THERMAL RADIATION

The study of nanofluid flow in porous media is of great interest because of enhanced heat transfer rates of these fluids. In this paper we present a study of mixed convection in a nanofluid flow in a porous medium along a vertical plate. The flow field is subjected to magnetic effects and nonlinear thermal radiation. The study further assumes the effects of heat generation within the boundary layer flow. The transport equations are solved numerically using the fifth-order Runge-Kutta-Fehlberg scheme with a shooting technique and appropriate boundary conditions for different values of physical parameters. The model for the nanofluid flow in the porous medium incorporates the effects of buoyancy ratio parameter and Darcy number. The effects of various physical parameters on the dimensionless velocity, temperature and concentration profiles is investigated. It is observed among other findings that an increase in the Darcy number leads to increase in the velocity profiles.