Nanofluid Flow in a Semi-porous Channel in the Presence of Uniform Magnetic Field

Abstract

In this paper, the problem of laminar nanofluid flow in a semi-porous channel is investigated analytically using Homotopy Perturbation Method (HPM). This problem is in the presence of transverse magnetic field. Here, it has been attempted to show the capabilities and wide-range applications of the Homotopy Perturbation Method in comparison with the numerical method in solving such problems. The fluid is water containing copper as nanoparticle. The effective thermal conductivity and viscosity of nanofluid are calculated by the Maxwell–Garnetts (MG) and Brinkman models, respectively. The obtained solutions, in comparison with the out of the numeric methods admit a remarkable accuracy. A clear conclusion can be drawn from the numerical method’s (NM) results; the mentioned method provides high accurate solutions for nonlinear differential equations. Then, we consider the influence of the three dimensionless numbers: the nanofluid volume friction, Hartmann number for the description of the magnetic forces and the Reynolds number for the dynamic forces. Finally results and discussions are made at the end of this investigation.