Hydromagnetic peristaltic transport of copper-water nanofluid with temperature-dependent effective viscosity

The unique chemical, mechanical, and thermodynamic properties of nanofluids make them a subject of great interest for scientists from all domains. Such fluids are of particular significance in biomedical engineering owing to their vast and novel applications in modern drug delivery systems; for example, mixed convective peristaltic flow of water-based nanofluids under the influence of an externally applied magnetic field is of particular significance. Hence, a lot of research has focused on peristalsis in the presence of velocity and thermal slip effects. An empirical relation for the effective viscosity of the nanofluid is proposed here for the first time. The viscosity of the nanofluid varies with temperature and nanoparticle volume fraction. Numerical simulation of the resulting nonlinear system of equations is presented for different quantities of interest. The results indicate that the maximum velocity and temperature of the copper-water nanofluid increase for larger variable viscosity parameter. The pressure gradient in the wider part of the channel is also found to increase as a function of the variable viscosity parameter. The variable viscosity parameter also influences the size of the trapped bolus. An increase in the nanoparticle volume fraction reduces the reflux phenomenon in a peristaltic flow. (C) 2016 Chinese Society of Particuology and Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.