Eur. Phys. J. Plus (2015) 130: 86
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/i2015-15086-4

Regular Article

Flow and heat transfer of ferrofluids over a flat plate with uniform heat flux

¹ Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering, University of Waterloo 200, University of West Waterloo, N2L 3G1, Ontario, Canada
² School of Mathematical Sciences, Peking University, 100871, Beijing, P.R. China
³ Department of Mathematics, University of Malakand, Dir (Lower), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
⁴ Department of Mathematics, Quaid-i-Azam University, 45320, 44000, Islamabad, Pakistan

^* e-mail: ideal_riz@hotmail.com

Received: 2 March 2015
Accepted: 21 March 2015
Published online: 30 April 2015

Abstract

The present work is dedicated to analyze the flow and heat transport of ferrofluids along a flat plate subjected to uniform heat flux and slip velocity. A magnetic field is applied in the transverse direction to the plate. Moreover, three different kinds of magnetic nanoparticles (Fe₃O₄, CoFe₂O₄, Mn-ZnFe₂O₄ are incorporated within the base fluid. We have considered two different kinds of base fluids (kerosene and water) having poor thermal conductivity as compared to solid magnetic nanoparticles. Self-similar solutions are obtained and are compared with the available data for special cases. A simulation is performed for each ferrofluid mixture by considering the dominant effects of slip and uniform heat flux. It is found that the present results are in an excellent agreement with the existing literature. The variation of skin friction and heat transfer is also performed at the surface of the plate and then the better heat transfer and of each mixture is analyzed. Kerosene-based magnetite Fe₃O₄ provides the higher heat transfer rate at the wall as compared to the kerosene-based cobalt ferrite and Mn-Zn ferrite. It is also concluded that the primary effect of the magnetic field is to accelerate the dimensionless velocity and to reduce the dimensionless surface temperature as compared to the hydrodynamic case, thereby increasing the skin friction and the heat transfer rate of ferrofluids.