Sensitivity evaluation of Brownian motion and chemical reaction parameter on transport of motile gyrotactic microorganism in nanofluid over a wedge

Abstract In any natural flow, there are different factors that influence the movement of microorganisms in fluid; some factors are significant while others are not. In this article, authors want to analyse the sensitivity of the movement of motile gyrotactic microorganisms to variation in Schmidt number ( Sc ), chemical reaction parameter ( Kr ), and Brownian motion parameter ( Nb ). For this purpose, a PDE is transformed into ODEs by using appropriate similarity transformation. The transformed ODEs are solved numerically by using MATLAB's built‐in software bvp4c. Then, by using these numerical results, we have developed a correlation between input variables and output responses for the Sherwood number () and density number () by using response surface methodology (RSM). The residual for output responses is plotted in graphical form and shows strong correlations and best‐fitted models between input parameters and output responses. Finally, the sensitivity analysis is performed and displays the results in graphical form and concludes that the input factor Sc is the most sensitive to for lower cases of A and Kr is the most sensitive among other parameters for middle and higher cases of B .