Abstract
This paper investigates the laminar boundary layer flow of nanofluid induced by a radially stretching sheet. Nanofluid model exhibiting Brownian motion and thermophoresis is used. Series solutions for a reduced system of nonlinear ordinary differential equations are obtained by homotopy analysis method (HAM). Comparative study between the HAM solutions and previously published numerical results shows an excellent agreement. Velocity, temperature and mass fraction are displayed for various values of parameters. The local skin friction coefficient, the local Nusselt number and the local Sherwood number are computed. It is observed that the presence of nanoparticles enhances the thermal conductivity of base fluid. It is found that the convective heat transfer coefficient (Nusselt number) is decreased with an increase in concentration of nanoparticles whereas Sherwood number increases when concentration of nanoparticles in the base fluid is increased.