Thermal radiation energy due to SWCNTs on MHD nanofluid flow in the presence of seawater/water: Lie group transformation

Abstract

An investigation of the boundary layer nanofluids flow over a porous wedge in the presence of uniform transverse magnetic field and thermal radiation energy has been analyzed. Water and seawater based nanofluid containing copper, aluminum oxide and Single Walled Carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) is taken into consideration. The governing equations in terms of ODEs are solved using fourth–fifth order Runge–Kutta–Fehlberg method with shooting technique. Approximate solution of temperature, velocity, the rate of heat transfer and the shear stress at the wedge are illustrated graphically for several values of the pertinent parameters. Thermal conductivity enhancements of water and seawater in the presence of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) are presented. The thermal boundary layer of SWCNTs–water is compared to SWCNTs–seawater on absorbing the incident thermal energy radiation and transmitting it to the nanofluid by convection. Momentum and thermal boundary layer thickness for SWCNTs–seawater is stronger than SWCNTs–water with increase of the radiation parameter because of low thermal conductivity of seawater. The rate of heat transfer of Cu–seawater is significantly stronger than all the other mixtures in the flow regime because of the combined effects of density of copper and seawater. Keywords: Water and seawater based SWCNTs, Porous wedge sheet, Lie group analysis, Thermal energy radiation