International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 55 (2012) 7587–7595

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International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijhmt

Hydromagnetic nanofluid flow due to a stretching or shrinking sheet with

viscous dissipation and chemical reaction effects
P.K. Kameswaran a, M. Narayana a, P. Sibanda a,⇑, P.V.S.N. Murthy b
a
School of Mathematics, Statistics & Computer Science, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Private Bag X01, Scottsville 3209, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa
b
Department of Mathematics, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur 721 302, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: We investigate the convective heat and mass transfer in nanofluid flow over a stretching sheet subject to
Received 15 June 2012 hydromagnetic, viscous dissipation, chemical reaction and Soret effects. Two types of nanofluids, namely
Received in revised form 21 July 2012 Cu–water and Ag–water were studied. A similarity transformation was used to obtain a system of non-
Accepted 23 July 2012
linear ordinary differential equations, which was then solved numerically using the Matlab ‘‘bvp4c’’
Available online 31 August 2012
function. Numerical results were obtained for the skin friction coefficient, Nusselt number, Sherwood
number as well as for the velocity, temperature and concentration profiles for selected values of the gov-
Keywords:
erning parameters, such as the nanoparticle volume fraction /, the magnetic parameter M. For a fixed
Nanofluid flow
Viscous dissipation
Prandtl number Pr ¼ 6:2 (corresponding to water) and different values of the magnetic field parameter
Heat and mass transfer and the nanoparticle volume fraction, we have shown that a good agreement exists between the present
Stretching sheet results and those in the literature. It was shown that the Cu–water nanofluid exhibits higher wall heat
Chemical reaction and mass transfer rates as compared to a Ag–water nanofluid. The influence of a magnetic field is to
Soret effect reduce both wall heat and mass transfer rates.
Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction observed different solution behaviours with multiple solution

branches. Slip MHD viscous flow over a stretching sheet was stud-
Over the past few decades flow over a stretching surface has re- ied by Fang et al. [36]. Their study showed that the velocity slip in-
ceived a lot of interest due to its many engineering applications creases while the wall drag force decreases with the increase in the
such as in extrusion processes, melt-spinning, hot rolling, wire slip parameter. Fang et al. [37] studied magnetohydrodynamic vis-
drawing, glass-fiber production, the manufacture of plastic, poly- cous flow over a permeable shrinking sheet. They observed that the
mer and rubber sheets, the performance of lubricants and paints, velocity at the wall increased with the slip parameter.
the movement of biological fluids and so on. Crane [1] was the first The study of magnetic field effects has important applications in
to consider the steady two-dimensional flow of a Newtonian fluid physics, chemistry and engineering. In recent years there have
driven by a stretching elastic sheet moving in its own plane with a been several applications in the polymer industry and metallurgy.
velocity varying linearly with the distance from a fixed point. This The metallurgical applications include the cooling of continuous
work has subsequently been extended by many authors to explore strips or filaments in, for example, the process of drawing, anneal-
various aspects of the flow and heat transfer in a fluid of infinite ing, and thinning of copper wires. In all these cases, the properties
extent surrounding a stretching sheet (see, Tsou et al. [2], Erickson of the final product depend to a great extent on the rate of cooling.
et al. [3], Mucoglu and Chen [4], Grubka and Bobba [5], Karwe and Drawing such strips in an electrically conducting fluid subject to a
Jaluria [6], Chen [7], Abo-Eldahab and Abd El-Aziz [8], Salem and magnetic field can control the rate of cooling and stretching there-
Abd El-Aziz [9], Abd El-Aziz [10]). Abel et al. [11] presented a by improving the desired characteristics of the final product. Pav-
mathematical analysis for the momentum and heat transfer char- lov [16] investigated the magnetohydrodynamic flow of an
acteristics of the boundary layer flow of an incompressible and incompressible viscous fluid over a linearly stretching surface. Re-
electrically conducting viscoelastic fluid over a linearly stretching cently, Jafar et al. [17] studied the effects of MHD flow and heat
sheet. Recently, Fang and Zhang [35] studied closed-form exact transfer over a stretching/ shrinking sheet with an external mag-
solutions of MHD viscous flow over a shrinking sheet. They netic field, viscous dissipation and joule effects. They observed that
increased stretching increases the fluid velocity and temperature
while reducing the surface shear stress and the surface heat trans-
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +27 332605626; fax: +27 332605648. fer rate. Fang [18] studied the boundary layer flow over a shrinking
E-mail addresses: sibandap@ukzn.ac.za (P. Sibanda), pvsnm@maths.iitkgp.ernet. sheet with a power-law velocity and obtained exact solutions for
in (P.V.S.N. Murthy).

0017-9310/$ - see front matter Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2012.07.065
7588 P.K. Kameswaran et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 55 (2012) 7587–7595

some values of the parameters. Andersson [30] analytically solved conductivity enhancement, a phenomenon observed by Masuda
the two-dimensional Navier–Stokes equations for the MHD fluid et al. [23]. Hamada et al. [24] studied magnetic field effects on free
over a stretching sheet. He found closed form solutions for the convection flow of a nanofluid past a vertical semi-infinite flat
velocity components. Anjali Devi and Thiyagarajan [32] investi- plate. They found that increasing the magnetic parameter leads
gated the effect of a transverse magnetic field on the flow and heat to a decrease in the velocity for a fixed value of the nanoparticle
transfer characteristics over a stretching surface by assuming that volume fraction. Radiation effects on the viscous flow of a nano-
the magnetic strength is nonlinear, and obtained similarity fluid and heat transfer over a nonlinearly stretching sheet were
solutions. studied by Hady et al. [25]. They found that an increase in the solid
In addition to a magnetic field, one has to consider the effect of volume fraction and stretching sheet parameter leads to a decrease
viscous dissipation on the boundary layer flow since this has a di- in the velocity resulting in increased skin friction at the surface.
rect impact on the heat transfer rate. The effect of viscous dissipa- Soret and Dufour effects are significant when density differ-
tion in natural convection processes has been studied by Gebhart ences exist in the flow regime. Ahmed [33] investigated Dufour
[12] and Gebhart and Mollendorf [13]. They observed that the ef- and Soret effects on free convective heat and mass transfer over
fect of viscous dissipation is significant in vigorous natural convec- a stretching surface with suction or injection. He found that the
tion and mixed convection processes. They also showed the skin friction coefficient and the local Nusselt number increases
existence of a similarity solution for the external flow over an infi- with Dufour numbers but decreases with the Soret effect. On the
nite vertical surface with an exponential variation of surface tem- other hand, the local Sherwood number increases with increasing
perature. Vajravelu and Hadjinicalaou [14] studied the heat Dufour numbers and decreases with the Soret number. Numerical
transfer characteristics over a stretching surface with viscous dis- studies of free convection and magnetohydrodynamic heat and
sipation in the presence of internal heat generation or absorption. mass transfer due to a stretching surface in a saturated porous
Javed and Sina [27] studied the viscous flow over nonlinearly medium with Soret and Dufour effects have also been investigated
stretching sheet with effects of viscous dissipation. They found that by Beg et al. [34]. In this paper we propose to study the combined
for large Prandtl numbers, the temperature profile decreases. The effects of a magnetic field, viscous dissipation, chemical reaction
effect of variable viscosity on MHD viscoelastic fluid flow and heat and Soret effects on nanofluid flow. The heat and mass transfer
transfer over a stretching sheet was studied by Prasad et al. [31]. In characteristics of the nanofluid flow over a stretching or shrinking
their study they found that the effect of the viscoelastic parameter sheet are discussed.
is to reduce the velocity distribution and increase the temperature
distribution in the boundary layer. 2. Mathematical formulation
Heat and mass transfer problems with a chemical reaction have
received a considerable amount of attention in recent years. In pro- Let us consider the two-dimensional steady laminar flow of an
cesses such as drying, evaporation, energy transfer in a cooling incompressible nanofluid over a stretching sheet. The origin of the
tower and the flow in a desert cooler, heat and mass transfer occur system is located at the slit from which the sheet is drawn. In this
simultaneously. Natural convection processes involving the com- coordinate frame the x-axis is taken along the direction of the con-
bined mechanisms are also encountered in many natural processes tinuous stretching surface. The y-axis is measured normal to the
and industrial applications, such as in the curing of plastics, the surface of the sheet. It is assumed that the induced magnetic field
cleaning and chemical processing of materials and the manufac- is negligible in comparison to the applied magnetic field.
ture of pulp and insulated cables. Chamka [19] studied the MHD The fluid is a water based nanofluid containing two different
flow over a uniformly stretched vertical permeable surface subject types of nanoparticles; copper and silver nanoparticles. It is as-
to a chemical reaction. Afifi [20] analyzed the MHD free convective sumed that the base fluid and the nanoparticles are in thermal
flow and mass transfer over a stretching sheet with a homoge- equilibrium and no slip occurs between them. The thermophysical
neous chemical reaction of order n (where n was taken to be 0, 1, properties of the nanofluid are given in Table 1 (see Oztop and
2 or 3). The influence of a chemical reaction on heat and mass Abu-Nada [26]).
transfer due to natural convection from vertical surfaces in porous With the above assumptions, the boundary layer equations gov-
media subject to Soret and Dufour effects was studied by Posteln- erning the nanofluid flow, the heat and the concentration fields can
icu [28]. He showed that the thickness of the concentration bound- be written in dimensional form as proposed by Tiwari and Das [38]
ary layer decreases as the Lewis number increases, a phenomenon
@u @ v
also evident when a chemical reaction is absent. Kandasamy and þ ¼ 0; ð1Þ
Palanimani [29] carried out an analysis of the effects of chemical @x @y
reactions on heat and mass transfer on a magnetohydrodynamic @u @u lnf @ u r 2
B20
u þv ¼  u; ð2Þ
boundary layer flow over a wedge with ohmic heating and viscous @x @y qnf @y2 qnf
dissipation in a porous medium.
@T @T @2T lnf @u2
A majority of the above studies are restricted to boundary layer u þv ¼ anf 2 þ ; ð3Þ
@x @y @y ðqC p Þnf @y
flow and heat transfer in Newtonian fluids. However, due to the
increasing importance of nanofluids, a tremendous amount of @C @C @2C @2T
u þv ¼ D 2 þ D1 2  K 0 ðC  C 1 Þ; ð4Þ
interest has been given to the study of convective transport of @x @y @y @y
nanofluids in recent years. The word ‘nanofluid’ coined by Choi
[22] describes a liquid suspension containing ultra-fine particles
(diameter less than 50 nm). The ultra-fine particles are usually Table 1
made by a high-energy-pulsed process from a conducting material. Thermophysical properties of water and copper and silver nanoparticles, Oztop and
With rapid advances in nano technology manufacturing, many Abu-Nada [26].
inexpensive combinations of liquid/particle are now available. Properties
These include particles of metals such as aluminum, copper, gold,
q (kg/m3) Cp (J/kg K) k (W/m K) b  105 (K1)
iron and titanium or their oxides. The base fluids used are usually
water, ethylene glycol, toluene or oil. The choice of base fluid-par- Pure water 997.1 4179 0.613 21
Cu 8933 385 401 1.67
ticle combination depends on the application for which the nano-
Ag 10,500 235 429 1.89
fluid is intended. A characteristic feature of nanofluids is thermal
 P.K. Kameswaran et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 55 (2012) 7587–7595 7589

where u, v are the velocity components in the x and y directions Schmidt number Sc, scaled chemical reaction parameter c and Soret
respectively, q is the fluid density, T is the temperature, C is the con- number Sr. They are respectively defined as
centration, C1 is the concentration of the fluid far from the sheet, B0 rB20 mf ðqC p Þf u2w
is the uniform magnetic field strength, Cp is the specific heat at con- M¼ ; Pr ¼ ; Ec ¼ ;
qf b kf ðC p Þf ðT w  T 1 Þ
stant pressure, D is the species diffusivity, D1 is the coefficient that
signifies the contribution to mass flux through temperature gradi- mf K0 D1 ðT w  T 1 Þ
Sc ¼ ; c ¼ ; Sr ¼ ;
ent and K0 is a chemical reaction parameter. D b DðC w  C 1 Þ
The boundary conditions for Eqs. (1)–(4) are assumed in the where
form: h  i 9
x2  x 2 /1 ¼ ð1  /Þ2:5 1  / þ / qqs ; >
>
>
u ¼ uw ¼ bx; v ¼ 0; T ¼ T w ¼ T 1 þ A ; C ¼ Cw ¼ C1 þ B at y ¼ 0;  
f >
>
‘ ‘ >
>
qs
/2 ¼ 1  / þ / q ; >
=
u ! 0; T ! T 1 ; C ! C 1 as y ! 1; f
ð19Þ
ð5Þ ðq Þ
/3 ¼ 1  / þ / ðqCp Þs ; >
>
>
>
i >
Cp f
h >
where A, B and b are constants, ‘ is the characteristic length, T1 is ðqCp Þs >>
the temperature of the fluid far from the sheet, The effective dy- /4 ¼ ð1  /Þ 1  / þ / ðq Þ : ;
2:5
Cp f

namic viscosity of the nanofluid was given by Brinkman [21] as

lf
lnf ¼ ð6Þ 3. Skin friction, heat and mass transfer coefficients
ð1  /Þ2:5
where / is the solid volume fraction of nanoparticles. The effective The parameters of engineering interest in heat and mass trans-
density, qnf, thermal diffusivity, anf and the heat capacitance of the port problems are the skin friction coefficient Cf, the local Nusselt
nanofluid are given by number Nux and the local Sherwood number Shx. These parameters
respectively characterize the surface drag, wall heat and mass
qnf ¼ ð1  /Þqf þ /qs ; ð7Þ transfer rates. The shearing stress at the surface of the wall sw is
knf given by
anf ¼ ; ð8Þ   qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
ðqC p Þnf @u 1
sw ¼ lnf ¼ qf mf b3 xf 00 ð0Þ; ð20Þ
ðqC p Þnf ¼ ð1  /ÞðqC p Þf þ /ðqC p Þs : ð9Þ @y y¼0 ð1  /Þ2:5
where lnf is the coefficient of viscosity. The skin friction coefficient
The thermal conductivity of nanofluids restricted to spherical nano-
is defined as
particles is approximated by the Maxwell-Garnett model (see Max-
well Garnett [39] and Guérin et al. [40]) 2sw
Cf ¼ ð21Þ
  qu2w
ks þ 2kf  2/ðkf  ks Þ
knf ¼ kf : ð10Þ and using Eq. (20) in Eq. (21) we obtain
ks þ 2kf þ /ðkf  ks Þ
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
In Eqs. (7)–(10), the subscripts nf, f and s denote the thermophysical C f ð1  /Þ2:5 Rex ¼ 2f 00 ð0Þ: ð22Þ
properties of the nanofluid, base fluid and nano-solid particles,
The heat transfer rate at the surface flux at the wall is given by
respectively. sffiffiffiffiffi
The continuity equation (1) is satisfied by introducing a stream   x2 b
@T
function w(x, y) such that qw ¼ knf ¼ knf A g 0 ð0Þ; ð23Þ
@y y¼0 ‘ mf
@w @w
u¼ ; v ¼ : ð11Þ where knf is the thermal conductivity of the nano fluid. The Nusselt
@y @x
number is defined as
The following similarity variables are also introduced; x qw
1
9 Nux ¼ : ð24Þ
u ¼ bxf ðgÞ;
0
v ¼ ðbmf Þ f ðgÞ;
2 >
> kf T w  T 1
>
=
T ¼ T 1 þ ðT w  T 1 ÞgðgÞ; C ¼ C 1 þ ðC w  C 1 ÞhðgÞ; ð12Þ Using Eq. (23) in Eq. (24), the dimensionless wall heat transfer rate
 12 >
> is obtained as
1 >
;
g ¼ mb y; w ¼ ðmf bÞ2 xf ;
f  
Nux kf
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffi ¼ g 0 ð0Þ: ð25Þ
where g is the similarity variable, f(g) is the dimensionless stream Rex knf
function, g(g) is the dimensionless temperature and h(g) is the
dimensionless concentration. On using Eqs. 6,7,8,9,10 and (12), The mass flux at the wall surface is given by
  sffiffiffiffiffi
Eqs. (2)–(5) transform into the following two-point boundary value x2
@C b 0
problem: J w ¼ D ¼ DB h ð0Þ ð26Þ
  @y y¼0 ‘ mf
00 1 0
f 000  /1 f 02  ff þ Mf ¼ 0; ð13Þ and the Sherwood number is defined as
/2
 
kf 0 1 x Jw
g 00  Pr /3 2f 0 g  fg  Ecðf 00 Þ2 ¼ 0; ð14Þ Shx ¼ : ð27Þ
knf /4 D Cw  C1
00 0
h  Scð2f 0 h  fh þ chÞ þ Sr g 00 ¼ 0; ð15Þ Using (26) in (27) the dimensionless wall mass transfer rate is ob-
f ð0Þ ¼ 0; f ð0Þ ¼ 1; f 0 ð1Þ ! 0;
0
ð16Þ tained as
gð0Þ ¼ 1; gð1Þ ! 0; ð17Þ Shx 0
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffi ¼ h ð0Þ: ð28Þ
hð0Þ ¼ 1; hð1Þ ! 0: ð18Þ Rex
The non-dimensional constants appearing in Eqs. (13)–(15) are the In Eqs. (22), (25) and (28), Rex represents the local Reynolds number
magnetic parameter M, Prandtl number Pr, Eckert number Ec, defined as
7590 P.K. Kameswaran et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 55 (2012) 7587–7595

Table 2 respect to g over the interval ½0; g subject to boundary conditions

Comparison of f 00 ð0Þ for various values of M and / when Pr = 6.2. (16) gives the exact solution
M / Hamad [15] Present results
1  esg
Cu–water Ag–water Cu–water Ag–water f ðgÞ ¼ ; ð29Þ
s
0 0.05 1.10892 1.13966 1.108919904 1.139659703
where s is a parameter associated with the nanoparticle volume
0.1 1.17475 1.22507 1.174746021 1.225068143
0.15 1.20886 1.27215 1.208862320 1.272152949 fraction, the magnetic field parameter, the fluid density and the
0.2 1.21804 1.28979 1.218043809 1.289788016 nanoparticle density. This satisfies the equation
0.5 0.05 1.29210 1.31858 1.292101949 1.318578149 sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
0.1 1.32825 1.37296 1.328248829 1.372956187 /
s ¼ /1 þ 1 M: ð30Þ
0.15 1.33955 1.39694 1.339553714 1.396935636 /2
0.2 1.33036 1.39634 1.330356126 1.396341586
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
1 0.05 1.45236 1.47597 1.452360679 1.475964915 We note that when / = 0, Eq. (30) reduces to s ¼ 1 þ M, the result
0.1 1.46576 1.50640 1.465763175 1.506394844 reported by Pavlov [16] for clear fluids.
0.15 1.45858 1.51145 1.458581570 1.511451360
0.2 1.43390 1.49532 1.433898227 1.495321546
4.2. Solution of heat transfer equation
2 0.05 1.72887 1.74875 1.728872387 1.74874830
0.1 1.70789 1.74289 1.707892022 1.742888091
Using the solutions of f and f 0 and further introducing a new
0.15 1.67140 1.71773 1.671398302 1.717730276
0.2 1.62126 1.67583 1.621264175 1.675834100 variable
Pr sg
n¼ e ; ð31Þ
s2
Table 3
Comparison of the values of wall temperature gradient g 0 ð0Þ for different values of Eq. (14) and the thermal boundary conditions (17) take the form:
Prandtl numbers.
s2
Results Pr = 0.72 Pr = 1.0 Pr = 3.0 Pr = 10.0 Pr = 100.0 ng nn þ ½1  k1 ðPr þ nÞg n þ 2k1 g ¼ k2 Ec n; ð32Þ
Pr
Grubka and Bobba 1.0885 1.3333 2.5097 4.7969 15.7120  
gðPr Þ ¼ 1; gð0 Þ ! 0: ð33Þ
[5]
Present 1.08852 1.33333 2.50973 4.79687 15.71163 kf kf /3 ⁄ 2
where k1 ¼ /3 ; k2 ¼
knf
and Pr = Pr/s is the modified Prandtl
knf /4
number.
xuw The solution of Eq. (32) is assumed in the form
Rex ¼ :
mf
gðnÞ ¼ g c ðnÞ þ g p ðnÞ;

where gc(n) is the complementary solution and gp(n) is the particu-

4. Exact solution
lar solution. The complementary solution of Eq. (32) is obtained in
terms of confluent hypergeometric function in the form
In the case Sr = 0, an exact solution of Eqs. (13)–(15) may easily
be found. For the case Sr – 0, the equations have to be solved g c ðnÞ ¼ C 0 na M½a  2; a þ 1; k1 n; ð34Þ
numerically. In this paper the equations were solved using the
Matlab ‘‘bvp4c’’ solver. where
X1
aða þ 1Þ    ða þ r  1Þ z
4.1. Solution of momentum equation M½a; b; z ¼
r¼0
bðb þ 1Þ    ðb þ r  1Þ r!

The momentum boundary layer equation is partially decoupled is Kummer’s function (see Abramowitz and Stegun [41]). The partic-
from the energy and species equations. Integrating Eq. (13) with ular solution is obtained as

Fig. 1. Effect of / on (a) and (b) for M = 0, Ec = 0.1, Sc = 1, Sr = 0.2, c = 0.08.

 P.K. Kameswaran et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 55 (2012) 7587–7595 7591

Fig. 2. Effect of / on (a) and (b) for M = 0, Ec = 0.1, Sc = 1, Sr = 0.2, c = 0.08.

Fig. 3. Effect of / on (a) and (b) for M = 0, Ec = 0.1, Sc = 1, Sr = 0.2, c = 0.08.

 
k2 Ec s2 where
g p ðnÞ ¼  n2 : ð35Þ
Pr ð4  2k1 Pr  Þ

k2 Ec s2 kf
C0 ¼ 1 þ ðPr  Þ2 and a ¼ / Pr  :
Making use of the boundary conditions (33) and rewriting the solu- Pr ð4  2k1 Pr  Þ

kn f 3
tion in terms of the variable g, we get
esga M½a  2; a þ 1; k1 Pr  esg  k2 Ec s2
gðgÞ ¼ C 0   4.3. Solution of mass transfer equation
M½a  2; a þ 1; k1 Pr  Pr ð4  2k1 Pr Þ
 ðPr  esg Þ2 : ð36Þ Introducing a new variable
Eq. (36) converges for small positive values of the Eckert number Sc sg
provided k1 – 2s2/Pr. Differentiating Eq. (36) and evaluating the re- f¼ e ; ð38Þ
s2
sult at g = 0 gives the exact surface heat transfer coefficient as
and using the now known values of f and f 0 , Eq. (15) and the bound-
g 0 ð0Þ ¼ C 0 ary conditions (18) (with Sr = 0) take the form:
 
 
a2
aþ1 M½a  1; a þ 2; k1 Pr    SaM½a  2; a þ 1; k1 Pr  1
 fhff þ ð1  Sc  fÞhf þ 2  cSc h ¼ 0; ð39Þ
M½a  2; a þ 1; k1 Pr   f
2S k2 Ec s2 hðSc Þ ¼ 1; hð0 Þ ! 0; ð40Þ
þ ðPr Þ2 ;
Pr ð4  2k1 Pr Þ ⁄ 2
where Sc = Sc/s is the modified Schmidt number. Following the
ð37Þ solution procedure discussed in the case of the energy equation,
7592 P.K. Kameswaran et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 55 (2012) 7587–7595

Fig. 4. Effect of M on (a) and (b) for Sc = 1, Sr = 0.2, / = 0.1, c = 0.08.

the solution of Eq. (39) is obtained in terms of confluent hypergeo- 5. Results and discussion
metric function as
cþd Analytical and numerical solutions were obtained for the effects
eð 2 Þsg
M cþd  2; 1 þ d; Sc esg
hðgÞ ¼ 2
: ð41Þ of viscous dissipation and chemical reaction on heat and mass
M cþd
2
 2; 1 þ d; Sc transfer characteristics of a stretching sheet problem in a nano-
The surface mass transfer rate has the exact value fluid. An analytical solution in terms of confluent hypergeometric
  series is only possible in the absence of the Soret effect. When
0
cþd4
2ð1þdÞ
M cþd
2
 1; 2 þ d; Sc  s cþd
2
M cþd
2
 2; 1 þ d; Sc the Soret effect is present, the nonlinear ordinary differential equa-
h ð0Þ ¼ ; tions (13)–(15) subject to the boundary conditions (16)–(18) were
M cþd
2
 2; 1 þ d; Sc
solved numerically using the Matlab ‘‘bvp4c’’ routine. We consid-
ð42Þ ered two different types of nanoparticles, namely, copper and sil-
where ver, with water as the base fluid (i.e. with a constant Prandtl
number Pr = 6.7850).
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
c ¼ Sc and d ¼ ðSc Þ2 þ 4cSc :
5.1. Stretching sheet results
In the case of a shrinking sheet the boundary conditions (16) are re-
placed by
The skin friction coefficients in the case of a stretching sheet are
f ð0Þ ¼ 0; f 0 ð0Þ ¼ 1; f 0 ð1Þ ! 0: ð43Þ given in Table 2 for different values of the magnetic parameter M

Fig. 5. Effects of c on dimensionless mass transfer rate for M = 0, Ec = 0.1, Sc = 1, /

= 0.1. Fig. 6. Effects of / on velocity profile for M = 3, Ec = 0.2, Sc = 1, Sr = 0.2, c = 0.08.
 P.K. Kameswaran et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 55 (2012) 7587–7595 7593

Cu–water nanofluid. In the same vein we also note that since the
conductivity of silver is more than that of copper, the temperature
distribution in a Ag–water nanofluid is higher than that of Cu–
water nanofluid. With an increment in the nanoparticle volume
fraction, the concentration boundary layer thickness increases for
both types of nanofluids considered.
Fig. 2(b) shows the skin friction coefficient f 00 ð0Þ as a function
of the nanoparticle volume fraction /. We observe that in the case
of clear fluid, / = 0, the value of the skin friction coefficient is unity,
a standard result of Crane’s [1] problem. The skin friction coeffi-
cient increases monotonically with increasing values of / to a max-
imum value before decreasing. The results reported with respect to
the skin friction coefficient hold for the two kinds of nanofluids.
The maximum value of the skin friction in the case of Cu–water
nanofluid is attained at a smaller value of / in comparison with a
Ag–water nanofluid. Further, we observe that the Ag–water nano-
fluid exhibits higher drag to the flow as compared to the Cu–water
nanofluid.
The dimensionless wall heat transfer rate g 0 ð0Þ and the dimen-
0
sionless wall mass transfer rate h ð0Þ are captured as a functions
of the nanoparticle volume fraction / in Fig. 3(a) and (b) respec-
Fig. 7. Effects of / on temperature profile for M = 3, Ec = 0.2, Sc = 1, Sr = 0.2, c = 0.08. tively. We observe that g 0 ð0Þ is a decreasing function of / while
0
the opposite is true in the case of h ð0Þ. The Cu–water nanofluid
exhibits higher wall heat and mass transfer rates as compared to
and nanoparticle volume fraction /. Increasing values of M results a Ag–water nanofluid. The presence of nano particles tends to re-
in a considerable opposition to the flow due to a Lorenz drag force duce the wall heat transfer rate and to increase the wall mass
which enhances the values of skin friction coefficient. The results transfer rates.
show a good agreement with Hamad [15] results. The effect of a magnetic field and viscous dissipation on the wall
The heat transfer coefficients are shown in Table 3 for different heat and mass transfer rates are shown in Fig. 4(a) and (b) in the
Prandtl numbers. It is clear that the heat transfer coefficient in- case of Cu–water and Ag–water nanofluids respectively. The influ-
creases with Prandtl numbers. The present results are in good ence of a magnetic field is to reduce both the wall heat and mass
agreement with the earlier findings by Grubka and Bobba [5]. transfer rates. The viscous dissipation effect reduces the wall heat
The effects of viscous dissipation, chemical reaction and Soret transfer rate and enhances the wall mass transfer rate. The com-
parameters on various fluid dynamic quantities are shown in Figs. bined effect of the magnetic field and the viscous dissipation (see
1–3. Figs. 1 and 2(a) illustrate the effect of the nanoparticle volume Fig. 4(a)) is to generate more heat in the boundary layer region
fraction / on the velocity, temperature and concentration profiles, and hence to reduce the wall heat transfer rate.
respectively, in the case of a Cu–water nanofluid. It is clear that as We note from Eqs. (14) and (15) that g and h are partially
the nanoparticle volume fraction increases, the nanofluid velocity decoupled, hence the chemical reaction and Soret parameters have
decreases while the temperature and concentration increases. no influence on heat transport. For this reason we have shown the
Increasing the volume fraction of nanoparticles increases the ther- variation of the wall mass transfer rate against c and Sr in Fig. 5. In
mal conductivity of the nanofluid and we observe a thickening of 0
both Cu–water and Ag–water nanofluids we observe that h ð0Þ is
the thermal boundary layer. We also observe that the axial velocity a decreasing function of Soret parameter and an increasing func-
in the case of a Ag–water nanofluid is relatively less than that of a tion of the chemical reaction parameter.

Fig. 8. Effect of / on (a) and (b) for M = 3, Ec = 0.2, Sc = 1, Sr = 0.2, c = 0.08.

7594 P.K. Kameswaran et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 55 (2012) 7587–7595

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