Natural convection flow of nanofluid along a vertical complex wavy surface with uniform heat flux

Abstract

Numerical study on the natural convection flow of Cu-H2O nanofluid along a vertical complex wavy surface with uniform heat flux has been carried out. The complex surface is considered as the combination of two sinusoidal functions, a fundamental wave and its first harmonic wave. The governing boundary layer equations are transformed into parabolic partial differential equations by applying a suitable set of variables. The resulting nonlinear system of equations are then mapped into a regular rectangular computational domain and solved numerically by using an implicit finite difference method known as Straight Forward Finite Difference (SFFD) method. Numerical results are thoroughly discussed in terms of velocity and temperature distributions, surface temperature distribution, skin friction coefficient and Nusselt number coefficient for selected key parameters such as solid volume fraction of nanofluid ( ), fundamental amplitude ( 1 a ) and harmonic amplitude ( 2 a ) of complex wavy surface. In addition, velocity vectors, streamlines and isotherms are plotted to visualize momentum and thermal flow pattern within the boundary layer region.