MHD boundary layer flow and heat transfer of a nanofluid past a permeable stretching sheet with velocity, thermal and solutal slip boundary conditions

In this analysis, the boundary layer flow and heat transfer over a permeable stretching sheet due to a nanofluid with the effects of magnetic field, slip boundary condition and thermal radiation have been investigated. The transport equations used in the analysis took into account the effect of Brownian motion and thermophoresis parameters. The solution for the velocity, temperature and nanoparticle concentration depends on parameters viz. thermal radiation parameter R, Prandtl number Pr, Lewis number Le, Brownian motion parameter Nb, thermophoresis parameter Nt, Eckert number Ec, magnetic parameter M and slip parameters. Similarity transformation is used to convert the governing non-linear boundary-layer equations into coupled higher order non-linear ordinary differential equations. These equations are numerically solved using fourth order Runge-Kutta method along with shooting technique. An analysis has been carried out to elucidate the effects of governing parameters corresponding to various physical conditions. Numerical results are obtained for distributions of velocity, temperature and concentration, as well as, for the skin friction, local Nusselt number and local Sherwood number for several values of governing parameters. The results indicate that the local Nusselt number decreases with an increase in both Brownian motion parameter Nb and thermophoresis parameter Nt. However, the local Sherwood number increases with an increase in both thermophoresis parameter Nt and Lewis number Le, but it decreases as the values of Nb increase. Besides, it was found that the surface temperature of a sheet increases with an increase in the Eckert number Ec. A comparison with previous studies available in the literature has been done and we found an excellent agreement with it. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.