Response surface optimization for the electromagnetohydrodynamic Cu-polyvinyl alcohol/water Jeffrey nanofluid flow with an exponential heat source

Abstract

This article examines the sensitivity analysis of Jeffrey fluid flow in the presence of copper nanoparticles with polyvinyl alcohol water serving as the base fluid under the influence of source terms like Joule heating, viscous dissipation, exponential heat source, and Arrhenius activation energy via a non-linear vertically elongating surface of non-uniform thickness. Governing PDEs are first converted into ODEs using a suitable similarity transformation. The resulting coupled ODEs are converted into a system of first-order ODEs and then solved using the shooting iteration technique with the RK-4th order method. The remarkable impacts of numerous parameters like Deborah number, Hartmann number, electric field parameter, thermal and solutal Grashof number, Prandtl and Eckert numbers, exponential heat source parameter, Lewis number, chemical reaction parameter, and activation energy parameter associated with the flow properties are discussed graphically. The effects of various physical parameters and the dependence of the response factors on the input parameter are explored using an experimental design and sensitivity analysis based on Response Surface Methodology. Response Surface Methodology is utilized to determine the output response variables of model dependencies, such as the drag coefficient and Nusselt number on the independent input parameters, namely the electric field parameter and Deborah numbers for the drag coefficient, and electric field parameter, thermophoresis diffusion parameter, and exponential heat source parameter for the Nusselt number. Local Nusselt number enhances with increment in the electric field parameter and thermophoresis diffusion parameter values, whereas it decelerates with the rise in exponential heat source parameter. The non-Newtonian nanofluids have proven their great potential in thermal transportation which has a diverse range of applications in thermal energy technologies such as lubrication, natural gas networks, spray processes, and cooling of nuclear reactors, spinning of fibers, cryopreservation, drawing of copper wires, nano-drug delivery, electronics, and many more.