Eur. Phys. J. Plus (2022) 137: 868
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-022-03069-9

Regular Article

Interplay of steric factor and high zeta potential on entropy generation during nanofluid slip flow in a microfluidic tube

¹ Department of Mathematics, Directorate of Open and Distance Learning, University of Kalyani, 741235, Kalyani, Nadia, West Bengal, India
² Department of Mathematics, Ramakrishna Mission Vidyamandira (Postgraduate Institution), Belur Math, 711202, Howrah, West Bengal, India

^b misrajc@gmail.com

Received: 18 May 2022
Accepted: 12 July 2022
Published online: 28 July 2022

Abstract

Of concern in the paper is entropy generation during electrically modulated transport of a nanofluid in a hydrophobic cylindrical microtube. For thermodynamic analysis of the system under consideration, the combined effects of nonlinear thermal radiation, viscous dissipation and Joule heating have been considered. Global irreversibility of the system has been optimized by accounting for different thermo-physical parameters. An appropriate finite difference approach has been developed to solve the nonlinear coupled equations numerically. Numerical simulations have been conducted to investigate the nature of the velocity, temperature, and entropy distributions for different parametric variations, such as steric parameter, surface zeta potential, Grashof number, velocity slip, and the radiation parameter. The Nusselt number, local and global entropy generation, Bejan number are examined for the system studied here. The Nusselt number exhibits asymptotic behavior during heat generation through viscous dissipation. The global entropy of the system is found to be reduced under the influence of nonlinear thermal radiation, implying better working efficiency of the system.