Hybrid Nanofluid Flow over a Shrinking Darcy-Forchheimer Porous Medium with Shape Factor and Solar Radiation: A Stability Analysis

This research aimed to develop a numerical solution to analyze the effects of solar radiation and nanoparticle shape factors on the flow of a hybrid nanofluid past a shrinking Darcy-Forchheimer porous medium. The base fluid chosen for this study is water (H2O), and the hybrid nanofluid consists of nanoparticles of silver (Ag) and titanium dioxide (TiO2) in four different shapes: bricks, cylinders, platelets, and blades. To account for solar radiation, the energy model incorporated a radiative heat flux, while the momentum problem considers the influence of a magnetic field. The application of an appropriate similarity transformation method converts the partial differential equations (PDEs) model into a system of nonlinear ordinary differential equations (ODEs). The mathematical model is solved using the shooting technique method and the bvp4c solver. The obtained results, along with the effects of the nanoparticle shape factor, solar radiation parameter, shrinking parameter, Darcy-Forchheimer number, and nanofluid volume fraction, are visually presented through figures and tables. It is worth noting that, in our numerical results, we observed the presence of dual solutions when λ < 0. Our findings indicate that the thermal transmittance increases with an increase in the nanoparticle shape factor and solar radiative parameter. Additionally, we observed an escalation in the velocity distribution in relation to the shrinking parameter and nanofluid volume fraction. Before reaching the two solutions, a flow stability analysis revealed that the first branch appears to be the most stable. Overall, these findings provide valuable insights into the behaviour of hybrid nanofluid flow in the presence of solar radiation and porous media.