Irreversibility analysis of Darcy-Forchheimer flow of a Williamson hybrid nanofluids near a stagnation-point across a vertical plate with buoyancy force

PurposeA novel type of heat transfer fluid known as hybrid nanofluids is used to improve the efficiency of heat exchangers. It is observed from literature evidence that hybrid nanofluids outperform single nanofluids in terms of thermal performance. This study aims to address the stagnation point flow induced by Williamson hybrid nanofluids across a vertical plate. This fluid is drenched under the influence of mixed convection in a Darcy-Forchheimer porous medium with heat source/sink and entropy generation.Design/methodology/approachBy applying the proper similarity transformation, the partial differential equations that represent the leading model of the flow problem are reduced to ordinary differential equations. For the boundary value problem of the fourth-order code (bvp4c), a built-in MATLAB finite difference code is used to tackle the flow problem and carry out the dual numerical solutions.FindingsThe shear stress decreases, but the rate of heat transfer increases because of their greater influence on the permeability parameter and Weissenberg number for both solutions. The ability of hybrid nanofluids to strengthen heat transfer with the incorporation of a porous medium is demonstrated in this study.Practical implicationsThe findings may be highly beneficial in raising the energy efficiency of thermal systems.Originality/valueThe originality of the research lies in the investigation of the Darcy-Forchheimer stagnation point flow of a Williamson hybrid nanofluid across a vertical plate, considering buoyancy forces, which introduces another layer of complexity to the flow problem. This aspect has not been extensively studied before. The results are verified and offer a very favorable balance with the acknowledged papers.