Thermal analysis of Reiner-Philippoff fluid flow with nanoparticles and bioconvection over a radially magnetized curved stretching surface

This study explores the thermal behavior of non-Newtonian fluid flow, focusing on Brownian motion and thermophoresis effects on a radially magnetized curved stretching surface containing various nanoparticles and gyrotactic microorganisms. The analysis builds on Reiner-Philippoff's viscosity model to represent the non-Newtonian fluid's response to shear forces under shear-thinning, shear-thickening, and Newtonian conditions. This work enhances the understanding of thermal conductivity in a propylene glycol base fluid with added silicon dioxide, molybdenum disulfide, and copper nanoparticles, considering radiative heat flux and viscous dissipation effects. The governing equations are transformed into a non-similar form and solved using MATLAB's bvp4c tool, applying the local non-similarity method with second-level truncation. Numerical data reveal the significant effects of parameters such as thermal radiation, Brownian motion, curvature, thermophoresis, and magnetic field strength on wall drag and heat flux. The result shows that with the increase in the magnetic parameter from 0.8 to 2.4, the Nusselt number increased by 6.83% and 5.42%, with an overall increase in 12.65% for nanofluid; the Nusselt number increased overall by 14.06% for hybrid nanofluid; and for ternary hybrid nanofluid, the Nusselt number increased overall by 16.27%. The obtained results show that the maximum increase in heat transfer, given by the Nusselt number, upon increasing the value of the magnetic parameter corresponds to the ternary hybrid nanofluid, which is an indication of further enhancement in thermal performance due to the presence of a magnetic effect.