Physicochemical and rheological properties of titania and carbon nanotubes in a channel with changing walls: Investigation of critical points

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate some multiple solutions for carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in a porous channel with changing walls. Moreover, the intention of the study is to examine the physicochemical and rheological properties of titania and CNTs.

Design/methodology/approach

The mathematical modeling is performed for the laws of conservation of mass, momentum and energy profiles. Governing partial differential equations are transformed into ordinary differential equations by applying suitable similarity transformation and then solved numerically with the help of shooting technique.

Findings

The effects of different physical parameters on the rheology of nanofluids are discussed graphically and numerically, in order to make the analysis more interesting. The present study revealed that multiple solutions of nanofluids in a channel with changing walls are obtained only for the case of suction.

Originality/value

Some new branches of the solution for nanofluids in a channel with changing walls are obtained in this research, which has never been reported before. Combined effects of physicochemical and rheology of titania and carbon nanotubes are investigated briefly. The effects of physical parameters on velocity and temperature profile are examined in detail which is more realistic than real-world problem.

Citation

Raza, J., Rohni, A.M., Omar, Z., Awais, M. and Baig, A.Q. (2016), "Physicochemical and rheological properties of titania and carbon nanotubes in a channel with changing walls: Investigation of critical points", Multidiscipline Modeling in Materials and Structures, Vol. 12 No. 4, pp. 619-634. https://doi.org/10.1108/MMMS-07-2016-0028