Analytical and numerical study on convection of nanofluid past a moving wedge with Soret and Dufour effects

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to investigate the Soret and Dufour effects on the double-diffusive convective boundary layer flow of a nanofluid past a moving wedge in the presence of suction.

Design/methodology/approach

The similarity transformation is applied to convert the governing nonlinear partial differential equations into ordinary differential equations. Then, they are solved numerically by the fourth-order Runge–Kutta–Gill method along with the shooting technique and the Newton–Raphson method. In addition, the ordinary differential equations are also analytically solved by the homotopy analysis method.

Findings

The results for dimensionless velocity, temperature, solutal concentration and nanoparticle volume fraction profiles, as well as local skin friction coefficient and local Nusselt and local Sherwood numbers are presented through the plots for various combinations of pertinent parameters involved in the study. The heat transfer rate increases on increasing the Soret parameter and it decreases on increasing the Dufour parameter. The mass transfer behaves oppositely to heat transfer.

Practical implication

In engineering applications, a wedge is used to hold objects in place, such as engine parts in the gate valves. A gate valve is the valve that opens by lifting a wedge-shaped disc to control the timing and quantity of fluid flow into an engine.

Originality/value

No such investigation is available in literature, and therefore, the results obtained are novel.

Citation

Md Kasmani, R., Sivasankaran, S., Bhuvaneswari, M. and Hussein, A.K. (2017), "Analytical and numerical study on convection of nanofluid past a moving wedge with Soret and Dufour effects", International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, Vol. 27 No. 10, pp. 2333-2354. https://doi.org/10.1108/HFF-07-2016-0277