Soret and dufour impacts on radiative power-law fluid flow via continuously stretchable surface with varying viscosity and thermal conductivity

Abstract

Abstract The intricate dynamics of mixed convective thermic and species transport in a power-law flowing fluid through a continuously stretched surface are investigated. The uniqueness of this study lies in the consideration of fluid variable thermic conductivity and viscosity, which introduces a higher degree of realism into the analysis. The transformation of similarity is used to transform the fundamental governing equations, and after that, the set of equations is processed numerically utilizing a non-similarity local approach. Furthermore, the effects of Soret and Dufour represent the cross-diffusion phenomena, accounting for the energy exchange with the surroundings. These factors collectively influence the stretching surface’s gradient velocity, affecting the thermal and species concentration rates. The findings offer a comprehensive understanding of these complex interactions, paving the way for optimizing thermic and species transport processes in various industrial applications. This study, therefore, holds significant potential for enhancing efficiency and performance in relevant industrial sectors. The main terms are the combinations of Dufour and Soret numbers that significantly impact the flow rate profile and mass transfer field. The coupled study of the nonlinear velocity, energy distribution and chemical mixture variance made the study more impactful in practicality. Skin friction variation shows limited impact with variations in the Soret number. The enhanced thermal gradient results in improved non-similarity parameters, yet it demonstrates a decrease with an increase in variable thermal diffusivity. There is a decrease in the temperature gradient as the buoyancy term reduces, while an increase is observed with changes in the Prandtl number. Similarly, the Nusselt number experiences a comparable impact due to changes in the Soret number.

Keywords

• Cross diffusion
• Mixed convection
• Power law fluid
• Variable viscosity
• Variable thermal conductivity