Unsteady MHD flow of tangent hyperbolic ternary hybrid nanofluid in a darcy-forchheimer porous medium over a permeable stretching sheet with variable thermal conductivity

Background This research investigates the unsteady magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) flow, heat, and mass transfer of tangent hyperbolic ternary hybrid nanofluids over a permeable stretching sheet. The study considers three types of nanoparticles—aluminum oxide (Al₂O₃), copper (Cu), and titanium oxide (TiO₂)—dispersed in a base fluid of ethylene glycol (C₂H₆O₂). This ternary hybrid nanofluid (Al₂O₃–Cu–TiO₂/C₂H₆O₂) has potential applications in cooling systems, biomedical uses for targeted drug delivery and hyperthermia treatments, heat exchangers, and polymer processing techniques like extrusion and casting. Methods The study examines the effects of various parameters, including the Weissenberg number, power law index, nanoparticle volume fraction, viscous dissipation, magnetic field, heat generation, nonlinear thermal radiation, temperature ratio, Joule heating, Brownian motion, thermophoresis, porous permeability, variable thermal conductivity, Eckert number, Prandtl number, Schmidt number, chemical reaction, velocity ratio, Forchheimer number, and unsteady parameters. The governing equations are transformed into similarity equations using appropriate transformations and solved numerically with the MATLAB BVP5C package. The results are validated against data from published articles to ensure reproducibility. Results The findings reveal that an increase in the Weissenberg and Forchheimer numbers reduces the velocity profile, while the temperature distribution increases. The variable thermal conductivity parameter (Γ) leads to a higher temperature profile, indicating improved heat transfer. Higher nanoparticle concentrations in the nanofluids and hybrid nanofluids result in enhanced skin friction, Nusselt number, and Sherwood number. Ternary hybrid nanofluids show the most significant improvement in heat transfer and thermal conductivity. Conclusions Ternary hybrid nanofluids significantly enhance heat and mass transfer, showing potential for applications in cooling systems, drug delivery, and polymer processing. The numerical results are consistent with previous research, confirming the reliability and reproducibility of the findings