Chapter 1

Introduction

1.1 General Introduction

Many industries have a strong need for improved fluids that can transfer heat more
efficiently. The inherently poor thermal conductivity of conventional fluids puts a fun-
damental limit on heat transfer. Therefore, for more than a century scientists and
engineers have made great efforts to break this fundamental limit. The proposed con-
ventional way to enhance heat transfer in thermal systems is to increase the heat transfer
surface area of cooling devices and the flow velocity or to disperse solid particles in heat
transfer fluids. The concept of using suspensions of solid particles to enhance ther-
mal conductivity of convectional heat transfer fluids was initiated by Maxwell [3]. By
dispersing millimeter or micrometer-sized particles in liquids, Maxwell was able to en-
hance the thermophysical properties of base fluids. However, major problems such as
sedimentation, abrasion, clogging microchannel and high pressure drop prevented the
usual microparticle slurries to be used as heat transfer fluids. Because of these reasons,
the millimeter or micrometer-sized particles suspensions was rejected in heat transfer
application. After a century, his idea was re-examined by Masuda et al. [4] and Arnold
Grimm [5]. But they faced serious problem of settling of the solid particles. Later,
Choi et al. [6] used the suspensions of nanoparticles in conventional base fluids with no
dispersants at all, very stable and devoid of such problems.

Nanofluids are fluids that contain small volumetric quantities of nanometer-sized par-
ticles, called nanoparticles.The nanoparticles used in nanofluids are typically made of
metals(Al, Cu, Ag, Au, Fe), oxides(Al2 O3 , CuO, T iO2 ), metal carbides(SiC), non-
metals(graphite carbon nanotubes), nitrides(AlN, SiN) and others. Common base fluids
include water, ethylene glycol and oil. Nanofluids commonly contain up to a 5% volume
fraction of nanoparticles to see effective heat transfer enhancements. Nanofluids are

1
Chapter 1. Introduction 2

studied because of their heat transfer properties: they enhance the thermal conductivity
and convective properties over the properties of the base fluid. More over, the presence of
the nanoparticles enhance the electrical conductivity of the nanofluids, hence are more
susceptible to the influence of magnetic field than the conventional base fluids. The
suspended metallic or nonmetallic nanoparticles change the transport properties and
heat transfer characteristics of the base fluid. Nanofluids have enhanced thermophysi-
cal properties such as thermal conductivity, thermal diffusivity, viscosity and convective
heat transfer coefficients compared to those of base fluids. Typical thermal conductivity
enhancements are in the range of 15-40% over the base fluid and heat transfer coefficient
enhancements have been found up to 40%. [6]. Thermophysical properties of nanofluids
have been enormously studied, to mention some, Kang et al. [12], Velagapudi et al. [13]
and Rudyak et al. [14].

Nanofluids have novel properties that make them potentially useful in many applications
in heat transfer. Nanofluids transfer heat more efficiently than do conventional fluids.
Therefore, when used to improve the design and performance of thermal management
systems, nanofluids offer several benefits, including improved reliability, reduction in
cooling system size, decreased pumping-power needs, increased energy and fuel efficien-
cies, and lower pollution. Thus, nanofluids can have a significant impact in cooling a
number of high-heat-flux devices and systems used in consumer, industrial, and defense
industries.

Research with nanofluids is still fairly new, so some of the mechanisms that affect heat
transport in nanofluid have yet to be studied in depth. In addition, most research has
been done on mechanisms that affect thermal conductivity and not as much research has
been done on mechanisms that affect the heat transfer coefficient in convection. After
the pioneer investigation of Choi, thriving experimental and theoretical researches were
undertaken to discover and understand the mechanisms of heat transfer in nanofluids.
The knowledge of the physical mechanisms of heat transfer in nanofluids is of vital im-
portance as it will enable the exploitation of their full heat transfer potential. Musuda
et al. [4] observed the characteristic feature of nanofluid is thermal conductivity en-
hancement. This observation suggests the possibility of using nanofluids in advanced
nuclear systems [15]. A comprehensive survey of convective transport in nanofluids was
made by Buongiorno [? ], who says that a satisfactory explanation for the abnormal
increase of the thermal conductivity and viscosity is yet to be found. He focused on
further heat transfer enhancement observed in convective situations. Khan and Pop
[16] presented a similarity solution for the free convection boundary layer flow past a
horizontal flat plate embedded in a porous medium filled with a nanofluid. Makinde and
Aziz [? ] studied MHD mixed convection from a vertical plate embedded in a porous
medium with a convective boundary condition. Recently, Wubshet et al. [? ] studied
Chapter 1. Introduction 3

MHD stagnation point flow and heat transfer due to nanofluid towards a stretching
sheet, Turkyilmazoglua and Pop [17] studied heat and mass transfer of unsteady natural
convection flow of some nanofluids past a vertical infinite flat plate with radiation effect,
Xua it al. [18]investigated flow and heat transfer in a nano-liquid film over an unsteady
stretching surface.

The science of fluid dynamics encompasses the motion of gasses and liquids, the forces
those are responsible for this motion and the interaction of fluid with solids. This field
stands central to much of science and engineering and touches almost every aspect of our
daily life. Fluid dynamics, one way or other, impacts defense, transportation, manufac-
turing, environment, medicine, energy, etc. From predicting the aerodynamic behavior
of moving vehicles, to the movement of biological fluids in human body, the weather
predictions, cooling of electronic components, performance of micro-fluidic devices, all
demand a detailed understanding of the subject of fluid dynamics and a substantial
research, thereof. Due to the complexity of the subject and a breadth of its applica-
tions,fluid dynamics is proven to be a highly exciting and challenging subject of modern
sciences. The quest for deeper understanding of the subject has not only inspired the
development of the subject itself, but has also suggested the progress in the supporting
areas, such as, applied mathematics, numerical computing and experimental techniques.
The Navier-Stokes equations are the governing equations for fluid dynamics, sometimes
coupled with the transport equations for energy, concentration and magnetic field. Due
to highly nonlinear nature of the Navier-Stokes equations, the exact solutions are avail-
able, only for some very special cases and one has to rely on approximate solutions, both
analytical and computational, in most of the cases. This is the advent of new diagnostic
methods for experiments and computational methodologies and tools that has enabled
scientists to probe into the complexity of subject.

The fluid dynamics embraces the out shining benefits of the study of heat and mass
transfer in a boundary layer flow of nanofluids. Boundary layer flow of nanofluids is an
active research area which has been considered by many researchers because of its wide
range applications in industries, engineering and natural process.

The present study investigates the convective heat and mass transfer in the boundary
layer flow of nanofluids over a stretching sheet with various effects that influence the
flow characteristics. The flow is assumed to be incompressible and laminar. Both steady
and unsteady two dimensional flow are considered. Two types of boundary conditions
are discussed: the constant temperature and the non-isothermal surface temperature
called convective surface boundary condition. The analysis include (1) mathematical
formulation: which include formulation of the mathematical model assembling the gov-
erning boundary layer flow; introducing similarity transformation variables and reducing
Chapter 1. Introduction 4

the highly nonlinear partial differential equations to a more simplified system of non-
linear ordinary differential equations; (2) numerical solutions: numerical computations
of the simplified non-dimensional system of governing equations are made using Keller
box method and the Runge-Kutta fourth order method with shooting techniques; (3)
Results and discussion: the numerical results are discussed in detail and the physical
interpretation of the results are presented, finally (4) conclusion: summary of the entire
work are presented.

1.1.1 Objective and scope of the study

The objective of the thesis is to study the convective heat and mass transfer in a magneto-
hydrodynamic boundary layer flow of nanofluids overs a stretching sheet under different
conditions. To this end, the specific objectives of this dissertation are the following:

• Present the physical flow problem analysis,

• Develop mathematical model for the flow problem,

• Carry out mathematical formulations and simplifications,

• Develop computational algorithm for the solving the problem,

• Solve the problem using the developed algorithm,

• Examine the solution of the algorithm,

• analyze the velocity, temperature and concentration distributions and boundary

layer thicknesses of the flow problem, and

• Analyze the effects of various governing parameters on the heat and mass transfer
characteristics of the flow problem.

Bearing these objectives in mind and apart from chapter 1 and 2, the following problems
have been considered in chapters 3,4,5,6, and 7 of the thesis.

1. Effects of Thermal Radiation and Viscous Dissipation on MHD Stagnation Point

Flow and Heat Transfer of Nanofluids Towards a Stretching Sheet

2. Mixed Convection MHD Boundary Layer Flow and Heat Transfer of Nanofluid
over an Exponentially Stretching Sheet with Effects of Thermal Radiation and
Viscous Dissipation
Chapter 1. Introduction 5

3. MHD flow and heat transfer of Nanofluids through a porous Media due to a stretch-
ing sheet with viscous dissipation and chemical reaction effects

4. Unsteady MHD boundary-layer flow and heat transfer of nanofluids over stretching
sheet with a non uniform heat source/sink

5. MHD Partial Slip Flow and Heat Transfer of Nanofluids Through a Porous Medium
over a Stretching Sheet with Convective Boundary Condition.

The study is limited to steady and unsteady, incompressible, two dimensional laminar
boundary layer flow of nanofluids over a differently stretching sheet. Two types of
boundary conditions are considered, the constant temperature and non-isothermal. Both
the no-slip and partial slip velocity boundary conditions are considered. The problems
are formulated and transformed using similarity transformations and solved numerically
by Keller box method and Runge-Kutta fourth order method with shooting techniques.

1.1.2 Significance of the study

Cooling is indispensable for maintaining the desired performance and reliability of a wide
variety of products, such as computers, power electronics, car engines, and high-powered
lasers or x-rays. Heat transfer is one of the most important processes in many industrial
and consumer products. The inherently poor thermal conductivity of conventional fluids
puts a fundamental limit on heat transfer and they don’t meet the current needs of the
industries and technologies. Hence the goals of this thesis is to develop a theory of
nanofluids to explain how nanoparticles change the thermal properties of nanofluids and
present different effects and conditions that provide the best option needed in the flow,
heat and mass transfer characteristics.

1.1.3 Method of solution

We have used the Keller box method and the Runge-Kutta fourth order method with
shooting techniques to get the numerical solution of the governing equations of the
problems considered in this thesis.

1.1.3.1 Keller box method

Keller box method is a very efficient implicit finite difference scheme. This method
has already been successfully applied to several non linear problems corresponding to
a parabolic partial differential equations. It is much faster, easier to program and it is
Chapter 1. Introduction 6

chosen because it seems to be the most flexible of the common methods, being easily
adaptable to solving equations of any order. As discussed in [19] the exact discrete
calculus associated with the Keller-box scheme is shown to be fundamentally different
from all other mimic numerical methods. The box-scheme of Keller [19], is basically
a mixed finite volume method, which consists in taking the average of a conservation
law and of the associated constitutive law at the level of the same mesh cell. In Keller
box method, first the system of governing non linear ordinary differential equations
together with the boundary condition is written in the form of a first order system. First
derivatives of u and other quantities with respect to η must therefore be introduced
as new unknown functions. With the resulting first order equations, the ”centered-
difference” derivatives and averages at the midpoints of net rectangles and net segments
are used, as they are required to get accurate finite difference equations. The resulting
finite difference equations are implicit and nonlinear. Newton’s method is first introduced
to linearize the nonlinear system of equations before a block-tridiagonal factorization
scheme is employed on the coefficient matrix of the finite difference equations. The
solution of the linearized system of difference equations can be obtained in a very efficient
manner by using the block-elimination method [20] with the help of computational tool
matlab.

1.1.3.2 Runge-Kutta

Runge-Kutta fourth order method is a well tested and validated numerical method for
initial value problems. In Runge-Kutta method with shooting techniques, the boundary
value problem (BVP) is first transformed in to an initial value problem (IVP). Then the
IVP is solved by systematic guessing for missing initial values using shooting technique
until the boundary conditions at ∞ asymptotically decay to zero value for several sets
of parameters.

1.1.4 Organization of the study

This thesis consists of eight chapters and is outlined as follows:

Chapter 1 introduces the basic concepts, objective, scope, method of solution and
outline of the thesis.

Chapter 2 presents, the literature review which includes some basic concepts and def-
initions, basic equations and review of previous studies. This chapter builds up the
necessary background for the understanding of the problems in the thesis. To develop a
Chapter 1. Introduction 7

better understanding of the boundary layer flow of nanofluids basic concepts are intro-
duced before presenting review of previous studies.

In chapter 3, the problem of the Effects of thermal radiation and viscous dissipation
on MHD stagnation point flow and heat transfer of nanofluids towards a stretching
sheet is investigated. It contains the introduction, mathematical formulation, numerical
solution, results and discussion and conclusion sections, respectively. The numerical
results for the velocity, temperature and concentration profiles are obtained and utilized
to get the important physical quantities such as local skin friction coefficient, Nusselt
number and Sherwood number. The numerical results are presented in tables and graphs.

Chapter 4 presents, the mixed convection MHD boundary layer flow and heat transfer
of nanofluid over an exponentially stretching sheet with effects of thermal radiation and
viscous dissipation. It is different from chapter 3 in that, both the free and forced con-
vection are studied, the flow boundary stretches with a velocity which is an exponential
function of x.

In chapter 5, the MHD flow and heat transfer of Nanofluids through a porous Media due
to a permeable stretching sheet with viscous dissipation and chemical reaction effects has
been studied for two different types of nanofluids, the Cu-water and Ag-water nanofluids.
It is different from the previous chapters in that, the effects of the nanoparticle volume
fraction on the flow, heat and mass transfer characteristics is investigated. We analyzed
the problem when the media is porous and the stretching sheet is permeable.

Chapter 6 deals about the unsteady MHD boundary-layer flow and heat transfer of
nanofluids over stretching sheet with a non uniform heat source/sink. The analysis has
been carried out for the Cu-water and Al2 O3 -water nanofluids. The problem is analyzed
for a continuously stretching sheet with non uniform heat source or sink.

In chapter 7, the study of MHD partial slip flow and Heat transfer of Nanofluids
through a porous medium over a stretching sheet with convective boundary condition is
carried out. The study has been carried out for four different nanoparticles, namely Cu,
CuO, Al2 O3 and T iO2 with water and ethylene glycol base fluids. The effects of various
governing parameters on the heat and mass transfer characteristics of the different types
of nanofluids has been investigated and compared.

Finally in chapter 8, concluding remarks of the thesis, proposed future work and im-
plications are presented

At the end, all the references used in this thesis are listed in the bibliography.