Eur. Phys. J. Plus (2017) 132: 166
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/i2017-11410-4

Regular Article

Influence of the shape factor on the flow and heat transfer of a water-based nanofluid in a rotating system

¹ Department of Mathematics, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Abbottabad, Pakistan
² Department of Mathematics, Mohi-ud-Din Islamic University, Nerian Sharif, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan
³ Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Sciences, HITEC University Taxila Cantt, Taxila, Pakistan

^* e-mail: umarkhan@ciit.net.pk

Received: 12 January 2017
Accepted: 15 February 2017
Published online: 13 April 2017

Abstract

The flow of a nanofluid between two parallel plates (horizontally placed) has been investigated. Different shapes of nanoparticles (suspended in a base fluid) have been considered and the effect of the shape factor has been analyzed. The lower plate is being stretched in opposite directions with forces of the same magnitude. The plates and nanofluid rotate together with angular velocity . The dimensionless form of the flow model, in the form of a system of ordinary differential equations, is obtained by employing some viable similarity transformations. A well-knows analytical method i.e. Variation of Parameters Method (VPM), has been used to solve the problem. Besides, the same system of equations has also been solved numerically by using the forth order Runge-Kutta method, combined with shooting technique. The graphs highlight the influence of ingrained dimensionless physical parameters on the skin friction coefficient, velocity and temperature profiles, and local rate of heat transfer. It is observed that the velocity increases by varying suction/injection parameter and the temperature seems to drop for higher values of the Reynolds number. A decrement in skin friction is observed for increasing nanoparticles volume fraction. On the other hand, the local rate of heat transfer increases for increasing suction/injection parameter, Reynolds number and nanoparticles volume fraction.