Free convection along a vertical wavy surface in a nanofluid

Abstract

A boundary layer analysis is presented for the natural convection past an isothermal vertical wavy surface in a nanofluid. The boundary layer regime when the Grashof number Gr is large is considered in detail. Using appropriate variables, the basic equations are transformed into non-similar form. These equations are mapped into the domain of a flat vertical plate, and then solved numerically employing the implicit finite difference method together with Keller’s box scheme. The effects of the surface wave amplitude on the rate of heat and mass transfer and the surface shear stress are presented graphically for parametric variations of the buoyancy ratio parameter, Brownian motion parameter, thermophoresis parameter and Lewis number. The presented analysis estimates the effect of roughness of the surface on the nanofluid boundary layer.