Numerical Study of Three Dimensional Mixed Convective Maxwell Nanofluid Flow Over a Stretching Surface with Non-Linear Thermal Radiation and Convective Boundary Conditions

The present article deals with the numerical analysis of three dimensional mixed convection upper-convected Maxwell (UCM) nanofluid flow due to stretching surface to explore the influence of nanoparticles on heat and mass transfer. The proposed model incorporates the impacts of thermophoresis and Brownian motion. Furthermore, the convective boundary conditions at the surface are also taken into account. The energy equation is obtained via the non-linear thermal radiative Rosseland approximation to investigate the thermal radiation effects. The governing equations of the problem are reduced through suitable similarity transformations. The numerical solutions of the set of converted governing equations are obtained by the shooting method through the Runge-Kutta integration scheme. The influences of the prominent governing parameters such as mixed convection parameter, buoyancy force ratio, thermophoresis parameter, Prandtl number and Lewis number on the velocities, temperature and concentration profiles are analyzed numerically as well as graphically. It is observed that an increase in the Deborah number K shows a reduction in the velocity and the associated momentum boundary layer thickness. Moreover, the concentration of nanoparticles declines for the Brownian motion parameter Nb but an opposite trend is noticed for the thermophoresis parameter Nt. A comparison reflecting an excellent agreement with the previous published findings is also presented.