Stability analysis of heat transfer in nanomaterial flow of boundary layer towards a shrinking surface: Hybrid nanofluid versus nanofluid

Abstract

This analysis scrutinizes the hydromagnetic flow of nanofluids towards a shrinking sheet with thermal radiation. Three different fluids are examined namely Al2O3-ZnO/ kerosene hybrid nanofluid, Al2O3/ kerosene nanofluid, and ZnO/ kerosene nanofluid, where aluminum oxide (Al2O3) and zinc oxide (ZnO) are chosen as the nanomaterials with kerosene oil as the base fluid. Utilizing the similarity transformations, the coupled partial differential equations controlling the flow problem are turned into a favorable nonlinear system of ordinary differential equations which are solved analytically by employing the Least square method (LSM). Dual solutions are found in a certain range of the velocity ratio parameterλ. This leads to implementing the stability analysis to verify the realizable solution from both solutions in which one solution is found to be stable while the other solution is unstable. The least eigenvalues are evaluated with the help of the bvp4c function from MATLAB software. The influences of governing parameters including both base fluid and nanoparticles masses, velocity ratio parameterλ, magnetic parameterM, Prandtl numberPr, and radiation parameter R on the flow and heat transfer characteristics are demonstrated and discussed, in tabular and graphical forms.

Keywords

• Stability analysis
• Hybrid nanofluid
• Shrinking sheet
• Dual solutions
• Analytical procedure