Open AccessFluid Flow and Heat Transfer Analysis of a Nanofluid Containing Motile Gyrotactic Micro-Organisms Passing a Nonlinear Stretching Vertical Sheet in the Presence of a Non-Uniform Magnetic Field; Numerical Approach
Author(s) -
S.A.M. Mehryan,
Farshad Moradi Kashkooli,
M. Soltani,
Kaamran Raahemifar
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0157598
Subject(s) - nusselt number , sherwood number , nanofluid , reynolds number , discretization , mechanics , ordinary differential equation , physics , nonlinear system , partial differential equation , laminar flow , materials science , heat transfer , differential equation , mathematical analysis , mathematics , quantum mechanics , turbulence
The behavior of a water-based nanofluid containing motile gyrotactic micro-organisms passing an isothermal nonlinear stretching sheet in the presence of a non-uniform magnetic field is studied numerically. The governing partial differential equations including continuity, momentums, energy, concentration of the nanoparticles, and density of motile micro-organisms are converted into a system of the ordinary differential equations via a set of similarity transformations. New set of equations are discretized using the finite difference method and have been linearized by employing the Newton’s linearization technique. The tri-diagonal system of algebraic equations from discretization is solved using the well-known Thomas algorithm. The numerical results for profiles of velocity, temperature, nanoparticles concentration and density of motile micro-organisms as well as the local skin friction coefficient C fx , the local Nusselt number Nu x , the local Sherwood number Sh x and the local density number of the motile microorganism Nn x are expressed graphically and described in detail. This investigation shows the density number of the motile micro-organisms enhances with rise of M , Gr/Re 2 , Pe and Ω but it decreases with augment of Rb and n . Also, Sherwood number augments with an increase of M and Gr/Re 2 , while decreases with n , Rb , Nb and Nr . To show the validity of the current results, a comparison between the present results and the existing literature has been carried out.