MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMIC MIXED CONVECTION FLOW AND BOUNDARY LAYER CONTROL OF A NANOFLUID WITH HEAT GENERATION/ABSORPTION EFFECTS

This research work is focused on the numerical solution of steady MHD mixed convection boundary layer flow of a nanofluid over a semi-infinite flat plate with heat generation/absorption and viscous dissipation effects in the presence of suction and injection. Gyarmati’s variational principle developed on the thermodynamic theory of irreversible processes is employed to solve the problem numerically. The governing boundary layer equations are approximated as simple polynomial functions, and the functional of the variational principle is constructed. The Euler-Lagrange equations are reduced to simple polynomial equations in terms of momentum and thermal boundary layer thicknesses. The velocity, temperature profiles as well as skin friction and heat transfer rates are solvable for any given values of Prandtl number Pr, magnetic parameter ξ, heat source/sink parameter Q, buoyancy parameter Ri, suction/injection parameter H and viscous dissipation parameter Ec. The obtained results are compared with known numerical solutions and the comparison is found to be satisfactory.