Heat transfer analysis of Oldroyd–B nanofluid flow over a horizontal plate

Non-Newtonian fluids have grown in popularity across a wide range of engineering disciplines. Generalized Oldroyd-B fluids are a type of non-Newtonian fluid that may mimic the behavior of many dilute polymeric liquids. On the other hand, heat transmission is important because it has industrial applications. The use of nanofluids, which have a higher heat transfer capacity, can enhance the overall efficiency of the thermal system. Therefore, this research considers the generalized Oldroyd-B nanofluid over a horizontal plate. The nonlinear fractional model is solved using the finite difference method. The integer order derivatives are integrated using the Crank-Nicolson method whereas the time fractional derivatives are evaluated using the Caputo derivative. The simulations are carried out in MATLAB software. The results revealed that the retardation time parameter slow downs the fluid. The heat transfer rates increased with increasing values of the nanoparticle volume fraction. The heat transfer of regular fluid increased by 9.4% on adding nanoparticles.