Marangoni convection in layers of water-based nanofluids under the effect of rotation (Q2669043)

The authors perform a linear stability analysis for the onset of Marangoni convection in a horizontal layer of a nanofluid heated from below and affected by rotation. The top boundary of the layer is assumed to be impenetrable to nanoparticles with their distribution being determined from a conservation condition while the bottom boundary is assumed to be a rigid surface with fixed temperature. The motion of the nanoparticles is characterized by the effects of thermophoresis and Brownian diffusion. A modification model is used in which the effects of Brownian diffusion and thermophoresis are taken into consideration by new expressions for the nanoparticle mass flux. Also, material properties of the nanofluid are modelled by nonconstant constitutive expressions depending on nanoparticle volume fraction. The steady-state solution is shown to be well approximated by an exponential distribution of the nanoparticle volume fraction. The Chebyshev-tau method is used to obtain the critical thermal and nanoparticle Marangoni numbers. The reviewer is of the opinion that this is a well-done paper, and it will be of some importance for researchers working in the area of nanofluid. However, the authors should compare the reported results with those from the open literature for some particular values of the governing parameters.