Finite element simulation of magnetohydrodynamic convective nanofluid slip flow in porous media with nonlinear radiation

A numerical investigation of two dimensional steady state laminar boundary layer flow of a viscous electrically-conducting nanofluid in the vicinity of a stretching/shrinking porous flat plate located in a Darcian porous medium is performed. The nonlinear Rosseland radiation effect is taken into account. Velocity slip and thermal slip at the boundary as well as the newly developed zero mass flux boundary conditions are also implemented to achieve physically applicable results. The governing transport equations are reduced to a system of nonlinear ordinary differential equations using appropriate similarity transformations and these are then solved numerically using a variational finite element method (FEM). The influence of the governing parameters (Darcy number, magnetic field, velocity and thermal slip, temperature ratio, transpiration, Brownian motion, thermophoresis, Lewis number and Reynolds number) on the dimensionless velocity, temperature, nanoparticle volume fraction as well as the skin friction, the heat transfer rates and the mass transfer rates are examined and illustrated in detail. The FEM code is validated with earlier studies for non-magnetic non-slip flow demonstrating close correlation. The present study is relevant to high-temperature nano-materials processing operations.