Electro-osmotic peristaltic flow of non-Newtonian Sutterby TiO₂ nanofluid inside a microchannel through porous medium with modified Darcy’s law

Abstract

The primary aim of this study was to examine the peristaltic flow of an unsteady non-Newtonian TiO 2 nanofluid through a uniformly symmetric channel under the influence of electro-osmosis. The fluid behavior was modeled by the Sutterby model. Furthermore, the flow took place through a porous medium, following a modified form of Darcy’s law. Additionally, the impacts of Dufour and Soret effects, chemical reaction, activation energy, viscous dissipation, heat generation, and thermal radiation were considered. A wave transformation was used to simplify the governing equations describing the velocity, temperature, and nanoparticle concentration. These simplified equations were then solved analytically using the homotopy perturbation method. Additionally, set figures were employed to illustrate and discuss the impact of the physical parameters involved in the problem on the obtained solutions. It is found that the presence of a modified Darcy’s medium in the Navier–Stokes equation results in a porous term that is dependent on the index of the Sutterby model. Furthermore, it is found that as the thermophoresis parameter increases, the nanoparticles are more concentrated, and their flow from the hot region to the cold region is more effective. Additionally, it is observed that in the presence of thermal radiation, the activation energy and the Brownian motion parameter have similar effects on the concentration profile.