Fully developed mixed convection flow in a vertical channel filled with nanofluids

In this paper, the fully developed mixed convection flow in a vertical channel filled with nanofluids is investigated. Analytical solutions for both the buoyancy-assisted and -opposed flow are obtained. Further analysis shows that the analytical solution for the opposing flow is only valid for a certain region of the Rayleigh number Ra in physical sense. Besides, the effects of the nanoparticle volume fraction φ on the temperature and the velocity distributions are then exhibited. It is confirmed that the nanoparticle volume fraction φ plays a key role for improving the heat and mass transfer characteristics of the fluids.