Magnetic field effects on free convection flow of a nanofluid past a vertical semi-infinite flat plate

In this paper, we discuss similarity reductions for problems of magnetic field effects on free convection flow of a nanofluid past a semi-infinite vertical flat plate. The application of a one-parameter group reduces the number of independent variables by 1, and consequently the governing partial differential equation with the auxiliary conditions to an ordinary differential equation with the appropriate corresponding conditions. The differential equations obtained are solved numerically and the effects of the parameters governing the problem are discussed. Different kinds of nanoparticles were tested. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.