MHD flow and radiation heat transfer of nanofluids in porous media with variable surface heat flux and chemical reaction

This paper studies MHD flow and radiation heat transfer of nanofluids against a flat plate in porous medium with the effects of variable surface heat flux and first-order chemical reaction. Three types of nanoparticles Cu, Al2O3 and Ag are investigated. Similarity transformations are applied to reduce the governing partial differential equations with boundary conditions into a system of ordinary differential equations over a semi-infinite interval. An efficient analytical approach based on differential transformation base functions method (DTM-BF) for unbounded domains is performed to give approximate solutions which are verified by numerical ones, showing close agreement. The effects of the solid volume fraction, types of nanoparticles, permeability, magnetic field, chemical reaction, Schmidt number, radiation and suction/blowing on velocity, temperature and concentration fields are graphically illustrated and analyzed in detail. (C) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.