Unsteady stagnation-point flow of upper-convected Oldroyd-B nanofluid with variable thermal conductivity and relaxation-retardation double-diffusion model

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu Bai ◽  
Qing Wang ◽  
Yan Zhang

Purpose This paper aims to examine the unsteady stagnation-point flow, heat and mass transfer of upper-convected Oldroyd-B nanofluid along a stretching sheet. The thermal conductivity is taken in a temperature-dependent fashion. With the aid of Cattaneo–Christov double-diffusion theory, relaxation-retardation double-diffusion model is advanced, which considers not only the effect of relaxation time but also the influence of retardation time. Convective heat transfer is not ignored. Additionally, experiments verify that with sodium carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) solutions as base fluid, not only the flow curve conforms to Oldroyd-B model but also thermal conductivity decreases linearly with the increase of temperature. Design/methodology/approach The suitable pseudo similarity transformations are adopted to address partial differential equations to ordinary differential equations, which are computed analytically through homotopy analysis method (HAM). Findings It is worth noting that the increase of stagnation-point parameter diminishes momentum loss, so that the velocity enlarges, which makes boundary layer thickness thinner. With the increase of thermal retardation time parameter, the nanofluid temperature rises that implies heat penetration depth boosts up and the additional time required for nanofluid to heat transfer to surrounding nanoparticles is less, which is similar to the effects of concentration retardation time parameter on concentration field. Originality/value This paper aims to explore the unsteady stagnation-point flow, heat and mass transfer of upper-convected Oldroyd-B nanofluid with variable thermal conductivity and relaxation-retardation double-diffusion model.

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 1039-1057 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu Bai ◽  
Bo Xie ◽  
Yan Zhang ◽  
Yingjian Cao ◽  
Yunpeng Shen

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the two-dimensional stagnation-point flow, heat and mass transfer of an incompressible upper-convected Oldroyd-B MHD nanofluid over a stretching surface with convective heat transfer boundary condition in the presence of thermal radiation, Brownian motion, thermophoresis and chemical reaction. The process of heat and mass transfer based on Cattaneo–Christov double-diffusion model is studied, which can characterize the features of thermal and concentration relaxations factors. Design/methodology/approach The governing equations are developed and similarly transformed into a set of ordinary differential equations, which are solved by a newly approximate analytical method combining the double-parameter transformation expansion method with the base function method (DPTEM-BF). Findings An interesting phenomenon can be found that all the velocity profiles first enhance up to a maximal value and then gradually drop to the value of the stagnation parameter, which indicates the viscoelastic memory characteristic of Oldroyd-B fluid. Moreover, it is revealed that the thickness of the thermal and mass boundary layer is increasing with larger values of thermal and concentration relaxation parameters, which indicates that Cattaneo–Christov double-diffusion model restricts the heat and mass transfer comparing with classical Fourier’s law and Fick’s law. Originality/value This paper focuses on stagnation-point flow, heat and mass transfer combining the constitutive relation of upper-convected Oldroyd-B fluid and Cattaneo–Christov double diffusion model.


Author(s):  
Ioan Pop ◽  
Kohi Naganthran ◽  
Roslinda Nazar

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse numerically the steady stagnation-point flow of a viscous and incompressible fluid over continuously non-aligned stretching or shrinking surface in its own plane in a water-based nanofluid which contains three different types of nanoparticles, namely, Cu, Al2O3 and TiO2. Design/methodology/approach – Similarity transformation is used to convert the system of boundary layer equations which are in the form of partial differential equations into a system of ordinary differential equations. The system of similarity governing equations is then reduced to a system of first-order differential equations and solved numerically using the bvp4c function in Matlab software. Findings – Unique solution exists when the surface is stretched and dual solutions exist as the surface shrunk. For the dual solutions, stability analysis has revealed that the first solution (upper branch) is stable and physically realizable, while the second solution (lower branch) is unstable. The effect of non-alignment is huge for the shrinking surface which is in contrast with the stretching surface. Practical implications – The results obtained can be used to explain the characteristics and applications of nanofluids, which are widely used as coolants, lubricants, heat exchangers and micro-channel heat sinks. This problem also applies to some situations such as materials which are manufactured by extrusion, production of glass-fibre and shrinking balloon. In this kind of circumstance, the rate of cooling and the stretching/shrinking process play an important role in moulding the final product according to preferable features. Originality/value – The present results are original and new for the study of fluid flow and heat transfer over a stretching/shrinking surface for the problem considered by Wang (2008) in a viscous fluid and extends to nanofluid by using the Tiwari and Das (2007) model.


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