MHD flow of a nanofluid due to a nonlinear stretching/shrinking sheet with a convective boundary condition: Tiwari-Das nanofluid model

Purpose Nanofluid research has piqued the interest of scientists due to its intriguing applications in nanoscience, biomedical and electrical engineering, medication delivery, biotechnology, food processing, chemotherapy and other fields. This paper aims to inspect the behavior of the mixed convection magnetohydrodynamic flow and heat transfer induced by a nonlinear stretching/shrinking sheet in a nanofluid with a convective boundary condition. Tiwari and Das mathematical nanofluid model is incorporated in the analysis. Design/methodology/approach The mathematical model is initially transformed to a nondimensional form by using dimensionless variables. Then the nondimensional partial differential equations are further transformed to a set of similarity equations by using the similarity technique. These equations are solved numerically by the bvp4c function in MATLAB software. Findings For a certain range of the stretching/shrinking parameter, two solutions are obtained. The friction factor and the heat transfer rate escalate due to suction parameter with adding nanoparticles volume fraction by almost 27.15% and 0.153% for the upper branch solution, while the friction factor declines by almost 30.10% but the heat transfer rate augments by 0.145% for the lower branch solution. Furthermore, the behavior of the nanoparticle volume fractions on the heat transfer rate behaves differently in the presence of the mixed convection effect. The temperature of fluid augments with increasing Biot number for both solutions. Originality/value The present work considers the flow and heat transfer induced by a stretching/shrinking sheet in a nanofluid using the Tiwari-Das nanofluid model with a convective boundary condition, where the effect of the buoyancy force is taken into consideration. It is shown that two solutions are found for a certain range of the shrinking strength, while the solution is unique for the stretching case. This study is important for scientists working in the growing field of nanofluids to become familiar with the flow properties and behaviors of such nanofluids.