Quadratic convection in a power-law fluid with activation energy and suction/injection effects

Abstract

Current research demonstrates the effects of activation energy and quadratic convection on the non-Newtonian power-law fluid flow through an inclined permeable plate. In addition, the fluid’s heat transfer is carefully investigated while taking convective boundary conditions and thermal radiation into account. Also, mass transfer between the flow and the inclined plate was investigated for binary chemical reactions. By appropriate transformations, governing fluid flow equations are changed into the dimensionless form. Numerical solution of this system of equations is obtained by both the local non-similarity method and the successive linearisation method. The effect of emerging parameters on the flow and physical quantities are examined with Biot number ($Bi$), activation energy coefficient ($E$), the chemical reaction parameter ($M$), quadratic convection parameters (${\alpha }_1$, ${\alpha }_2$), inclination angle ($\mathrm{\Omega }$), the suction/injection parameter ($f_w$) and the radiation parameter ($Rd$). Further, the rate of mass and heat transfer are compared for all the instances of linear and quadratic convective flows. Power-law fluids concentration is increased with activation energy, while it diminishes with chemical reaction. The thickness of thermal boundary layer is considerably enhanced by both Biot number and radiation parameters. The thermal and solutal rates are increasing functions of quadratic convection parameters.

KEYWORDS:

• Quadratic convection
• convective boundary condition
• activation energy
• radiation
• power-law fluid
• successive linearisation method

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).