A spectral relaxation method for thermal dispersion and radiation effects in a nanofluid flow

Boundary value problems

Peri K Kameswaran¹  Precious Sibanda¹  Sandile S Motsa¹ 

[1] School of Mathematical Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa

关键词: spectral relaxation method;    heat transfer;    stretching sheet;    nanofluids;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1687-2770-2013-242

学科分类：数学（综合）

来源: SpringerOpen

【 摘 要 】

In this study we use a new spectral relaxation method to investigate heat transfer in a nanofluid flow over an unsteady stretching sheet with thermal dispersion and radiation. Three water-based nanofluids containing copper oxide CuO, aluminium oxide Al2O3 and titanium dioxide TiO2 nanoparticles are considered in this study. The transformed governing system of nonlinear differential equations was solved numerically using the spectral relaxation method that has been proposed for the solution of nonlinear boundary layer equations. Results were obtained for the skin friction coefficient, the local Nusselt number as well as the velocity, temperature and nanoparticle fraction profiles for some values of the governing physical and fluid parameters. Validation of the results was achieved by comparison with limiting cases from previous studies in the literature. We show that the proposed technique is an efficient numerical algorithm with assured convergence that serves as an alternative to common numerical methods for solving nonlinear boundary value problems. We show that the convergence rate of the spectral relaxation method is significantly improved by using the method in conjunction with the successive over-relaxation method.

【 授权许可】

CC BY