The effect of variable viscosity on the flow and heat transfer of a viscous Ag-water and Cu-water nanofluids

A numerical study is carried out to study the effects of the temperature dependent viscosity on the flow and heat transfer of a nanofluid over a flat surface in the presence of viscous dissipation. The governing nonlinear partial differential equations are transformed into nonlinear ordinary differential equations, and are solved numerically by the Keller-box method. The numerical results indicate that the effect of nanoparticle volume fraction is to increase the heat transfer and hence enhance the thermal boundary layer thickness. This is true even in the presence of variable viscosity and the viscous dissipation. Furthermore, the results obtained for heat transfer characteristics with nanoparticles reveal many interesting behaviors that warrant further study on the effects of the “nano-solid-particles”.