Forced convection heat and mass transfer of MHD nanofluid flow inside a porous microchannel with chemical reaction on the walls

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to focus on convective heat and mass transfer characteristics of Cu-water nanofluid inside a porous microchannel in the presence of a uniform magnetic field. The walls of the microchannel are subjected to constant asymmetric heat fluxes and also the first order catalytic reaction. To represent the non-equilibrium region near the surfaces, the Navier’s slip condition is considered at the surfaces because of the non-adherence of the fluid-solid interface and the microscopic roughness in microchannels.

Design/methodology/approach

Employing the Brinkman model for the flow in the porous medium and the “clear fluid compatible” model as a viscous dissipation model, the conservative partial differential equations have been transformed into a system of ordinary ones via the similarity variables. Closed form exact solutions are obtained analytically based on dimensionless parameters of velocity, temperature and species concentration.

Findings

Results show that the addition of Cu-nanoparticles to the fluid has a significant influence on decreasing concentration, temperature distribution at the both walls and velocity profile along the microchannel. In addition, total heat transfer in microchannel increases as nanoparticles add to the fluid. Slip parameter and Hartmann number have the decreasing effects on concentration and temperature distributions. Slip parameter leads to increase velocity profiles, while Hartmann number has an opposite trend in velocity profiles. These two parameters increase the total heat transfer rate significantly.

Originality/value

In the present study, a comprehensive analytical solution has been obtained for convective heat and mass transfer characteristics of Cu-water nanofluid inside a porous microchannel in the presence of a uniform magnetic field. Finally, the effects of several parameters such as Darcy number, nanoparticle volume fraction, slip parameter, Hartmann number, Brinkman number, asymmetric heat flux parameter, Soret and Damkohler numbers on total heat transfer rate and fluid flow profiles are studied in more detail. To the best of author’s knowledge, no study has been conducted to this subject and the results are original.

Citation

Moshizi, S.A. (2015), "Forced convection heat and mass transfer of MHD nanofluid flow inside a porous microchannel with chemical reaction on the walls", Engineering Computations, Vol. 32 No. 8, pp. 2419-2442. https://doi.org/10.1108/EC-02-2015-0035