Water thermal enhancement in a porous medium via a suspension of hybrid nanoparticles: MHD mixed convective Falkner's-Skan flow case study

Abstract

Keeping in mind the whispered applications of Falkner's-Skan Flows, the present hydrothermal scrutinization intended to explore the two-dimensional flow pattern and thermal characteristics featuring the steady mixed convective motion of a radiating homogeneous hybrid nanofluidic mixture (Ag+TiO2)−H2O (i.e., a homogeneous aquatic mixture containing spherical silver and titanium dioxide nanoparticles) over a non-movable wedge surface. By combining Darcy's-Brinkman and single-phase models, the conservation equations are stated properly in the case where the hydrothermal impacts of specific variable heat and magnetic sources are taken into account effectively in the present flow problem. After many simplifications and rearrangements, the derived boundary layer equations are handled numerically with the help of a robust iterative GDQM-NRT algorithm, whose accurate results are presented graphically and tabularly. As the main findings, it is evidenced that the thermal buoyancy forces, as well as Lorentz's and Darcy's forces, act as assisting factors, which exert a cooling impact throughout the hybrid nanofluidic mixture (Ag+TiO2)−H2O due to the imposed axial pressure gradient. Energetically, it is demonstrated that the silver nanoparticles play a noteworthy role in the enhancement of the heat transfer rate at the wedge surface with a strengthening in the resulting surface viscous drag forces.

Keywords

• MHD Falkner's-Skan flow
• Darcy's-Brinkman porosity model
• Thermal radiation
• Homogeneous hybrid nanofluid
• Mixed convection
• GDQM-NRT