Numerical Analysis of Heat Transfer of Eyring Powell Fluid Using Double Stratification of Magneto-Hydrodynamic Boundary Layer Flow

Heat transfer fluids play a vital role in many engineering and industrial sectors such as power generation, chemical production, air-conditioning, transportation and microelectronics.

Aim: To numerically investigate the effect of double stratification on magneto-hydrodynamic boundary layer flow and heat transfer of an Eyring-Powell fluid.

Study Design: Eyring-Powell fluid is one of the non-Newtonian fluid that possess different characteristics thus different mathematical models have been formulated to describe such fluids by appropriate substitution into Navier-Stoke’s equations. The challenging complexity and the nature of the resultant equations are of great interest hence attract many investigations.

Place and Duration of Study: Department of Mathematics and Actuarial Science, Kenyatta University, Nairobi, Kenya between December 2019 and October 2020.

Methodology: The resultant nonlinear equations are transformed to linear differential equations by introducing appropriate similarity transformations. The resulting equations are solved numerically by simulating the predictor-corrector (P-C) method in matlab ode113. The results are graphically depicted and analysed to illustrate the effects of magnetic field, thermophoresis, thermal stratification, solutal stratification, material fluid parameters and Grashoff number on the fluid velocity, temperature, concentration, local Sherwood number and local Nusselt number.

Results: The results show that increasing the magnetic field strength, thermophoresis, thermal stratification and solutal stratification lead to a decrease in the fluid velocity, temperature, Sherwood number, Nusselt number and skin friction while an increase in the magnetic field strength, thermal stratification, solutal stratification, and thermophoresis increases the fluid concentration.

Conclusion: The parameters in this study can be varied to enhance heat ejection of Eyring-Powell fluid and applied in industries as a coolant or heat transfer fluid.