Investigation of Nanoparticles Effect on the Jeffery-Hamel Flow

This study discuses the nonlinear Jeffery-Hamel flow problem in a nanofluid. Analysis is performed for three types of nanoparticles namely copper Cu, alumina Al2O3 and titania TiO2. Water has been used as a base fluid. Both analytical and numerical solutions are obtained. Analytic solution is developed using differential transformation method. Numerical solution is computed by Runge-Kutta scheme. Both analytic and numerical solutions are presented and compared. Dimensionless velocity and skin friction coefficient are addressed with respect to involved pertinent parameters. It is observed that the influence of solid volume fraction of nanoparticles on the velocity and skin friction is more pronounced when compared with the type of nanoparticles. Further, the skin friction coefficient for Al2O3 is highest in comparison to the other two nanoparticles. © 2012 King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals.