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Numerical study of unsteady MHD Couette flow and heat transfer of nanofluids in a rotating system with convective cooling

Ahmada Omar Ali (School of Computational and Communication Sciences and Engineering, Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology, Arusha, Tanzania.)
Oluwole Daniel Makinde (Faculty of Military Science, Stellenbosch University, Saldanha, South Africa.)
Yaw Nkansah-Gyekye (School of Computational and Communication Sciences and Engineering, Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology, Arusha, Tanzania.)

International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow

ISSN: 0961-5539

Article publication date: 6 June 2016

188

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate numerically the unsteady MHD Couette flow and heat transfer of viscous, incompressible and electrically conducting nanofluids between two parallel plates in a rotating channel.

Design/methodology/approach

The nanofluid is set in motion by the combined action of moving upper plate, Coriolis force and the constant pressure gradient. The channel rotates in unison about an axis normal to the plates. The nonlinear governing equations for velocity and heat transfer are obtained and solved numerically using semi-discretization, shooting and collocation (bvp4c) techniques together with Runge-Kutta Fehlberg integration scheme.

Findings

Results show that both magnetic field and rotation rate demonstrate significant effect on velocity and heat transfer profiles in the system with Cu-water nanofluid demonstrating the highest velocity and heat transfer efficiency. These numerical results are in excellent agreements with the results obtained by other methods.

Practical implications

This paper provides a very useful source of information for researchers on the subject of hydromagnetic nanofluid flow in rotating systems.

Originality/value

Couette flow of nanofluid in the presence of applied magnetic field in a rotating channel is investigated.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

Conflict of interests: the authors declare that there is no conflict of interests.

Citation

Ali, A.O., Makinde, O.D. and Nkansah-Gyekye, Y. (2016), "Numerical study of unsteady MHD Couette flow and heat transfer of nanofluids in a rotating system with convective cooling", International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, Vol. 26 No. 5, pp. 1567-1579. https://doi.org/10.1108/HFF-10-2014-0316

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2016, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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