Purpose: This paper aims to numerically investigate the two-dimensional unsteady laminar magnetohydrodynamic bioconvection flow and heat transfer of an electrically conducting non-Newtonian Casson thin film with uniform thickness over a horizontal elastic sheet emerging from a slit in the presence of viscous dissipation. The composite effects of variable heat, mass, nanoparticle volume fraction and gyrotactic micro-organism flux are considered as is hydrodynamic (wall) slip. The Buongiorno nanoscale model is deployed which features Brownian motion and thermophoresis effects. The model studies the manufacturing fluid dynamics of smart magnetic bio-nano-polymer coatings.Design/methodology/approach: The coupled non-linear partial differential boundary-layer equations governing the flow, heat and nano-particle and micro-organism mass transfer are reduced to a set of coupled non-dimensional equations using the appropriate transformations and then solved as an nonlinear boundary value problem with the semi-numerical Liao homotopy analysis method (HAM).Validation with a generalized differential quadrature (GDQ) numerical technique is included.Findings: An increase in velocity slip results in a significant decrement in skin friction coefficient and Sherwood number, whereas it generates a substantial enhancement in Nusselt number and motile micro-organism number density. The computations reveal that the bioconvection Schmidt number decreases the micro-organism concentration and boundary-layer thickness which is attributable to a rise in viscous diffusion rate. Increasing bioconvection Péclet number substantially elevates the temperatures in the regime, thermal boundary layer thickness, nanoparticle concentration values and nano-particle species boundary layer thickness. The computations demonstrate the excellent versatility of HAM and GDQ in solving nonlinear multi-physical nano-bioconvection flows in thermal sciences and furthermore are relevant to application in the synthesis of smart biopolymers, microbial fuel cell coatings, etc.Research limitations/implications: The numerical study is valid for two-dimensional, unsteady, laminar Casson film flow with nanoparticles over an elastic sheet in presence of variable heat, mass and nanoparticle volume fraction flux. The film has uniform thickness and flow is transpiring from slit which is fixed at origin.Social implications: The study has significant applications in the manufacturing dynamics of nano-bio-polymers and the magnetic field control of materials processing systems. Furthermore, it is relevant to application in the synthesis of smart biopolymers, microbial fuel cell coatings, etc.Originality/value: The originality of the study is to address the simultaneous effects of unsteady and variable surface fluxes on Casson nanofluid transport of gyrotactic bio-convection thin film over a stretching sheet in the presence of a transverse magnetic field. Validation of HAM with a GDQ numerical technique is included. The present numerical approaches (HAM and GDQ) offer excellent promise in simulating such multi-physical problems of interest in thermal thin film rheological fluid dynamics.

A semi-analytical solution for the convection of a power-law nanofluid external to three different geometries (i.e., cone, wedge and plate), subject to convective boundary condition is presented. A revised Buongiorno model is employed for the nanofluid transport over the various geometries with variable wall temperature and nanoparticle concentration conditions (non-isothermal and non-iso-solutal). Wall transpiration is included. The dimensional governing equations comprising the conservation of mass, momentum, energy and nanoparticle volume fraction are transformed to dimensionless form using appropriate transformations. The transformed equations are solved using a robust semi-analytical power series method known as the Homotopy analysis method (HAM). The convergence and validation of the series solutions is considered in detail. The variation of order of the approximation and computational time with respect to residual errors for temperature for the different geometries is also elaborated. The influence of thermophysical parameters such as wall temperature parameter, wall concentration parameter for nanofluid, Biot number, thermophoresis parameter, Brownian motion parameter and suction/blowing parameter on the velocity, temperature and nanoparticle volume fraction is visualized graphically and tabulated. The impact of these parameters on the engineering design functions, e.g., coefficient of skin fraction factor, Nusselt number and Sherwood number is also shown in tabular form. The outcomes are compared with the existing results from the literature to validate the study. It is found that thermal and solute Grashof numbers both significantly enhance the flow velocity whereas they suppress the temperature and nanoparticle volume fraction for the three different configurations, i.e., cone, wedge and plate. Furthermore, the thermal and concentration boundary layers are more dramatically modified for the wedge case, as compared to the plate and cone. This study has substantial applications in polymer engineering coating processes, fiber technology and nanoscale materials processing systems.

Purpose: This study aims to examine the flow of unsteady mixed convective hybrid nanofluid over a rotating sphere with heat generation/absorption. The hybrid nanofluid contains different shapes of nanoparticles (copper [Cu] and aluminium oxide [Al₂O₃]) in the base fluid (water [H₂O]). The influence of different shapes (sphere, brick, cylinder, platelets and blades) of nanoparticle in water-based hybrid nanofluid is also investigated. Design/methodology/approach: To analyse the nanomaterial, the flow model is established, and in doing so, the Prandtl’s boundary layer theory is incorporated into the present model. The bvp4c approach, i.e. finite difference method, is used to find the numerical solution of differential equations that is controlling the fluid flow. The effect of relevant flow parameters on nanofluid temperature and velocity profile is demonstrated in detailed explanations using graphs and bar charts, whereas numerical results for Nusselt number and the skin’s coefficient for various form parameters are presented in tabular form. Findings: The rate of heat transfer is least for spherical-shaped nanoparticle because of its smoothness, symmetricity and isotropic behaviour. The rate of heat transfer is highest for blade-shaped nanoparticles as compared to other shapes (brick, cylindrical and platelet) of nanoparticles because the blade-shaped nanoparticles causes comparatively more turbulence flow in the nanofluid than other shapes of nanoparticle. Heat generation affects the temperature distribution and, hence, the particle deposition rate. The absorption of heat extracts heat and reduce the temperature across the rotating sphere. The heat generation/absorption parameter plays an important role in establishing and maintaining the temperature around the rotating sphere. Research limitations/implications: The numerical study is valid with the exception of the fluctuation in density that results in the buoyancy force and the functional axisymmetric nanofluid transport has constant thermophysical characteristics. In addition, this investigation is also constrained by the assumptions that there is no viscosity dissipation, no surface slippage and no chemically activated species. The hybrid nanofluid Al₂O₃–Cu/H₂O is an incompressible and diluted suspension. The single-phase hybrid nanofluid model is considered in which the relative velocity of water (H₂O) and hybrid nanoparticles (Al₂O₃–Cu) is the same and they are in a state of thermal equilibrium. Practical implications: Study on convective flow across a revolving sphere has its applications found in electrolysis management, polymer deposition, medication transfer, cooling of spinning machinery segments, spin-stabilized missiles and other industrial and technical applications. Originality/value: The originality of the study is to investigate the effect of shape factor on the flow of electrically conducting hybrid nanofluid past a rotating sphere with heat generation/absorption and magnetic field. The results are validated and provide extremely positive balance with the recognised articles. The results of the study provide many appealing applications that merit further study of the problem.

Purpose: To achieve material-invariant formulation for heat transfer of Carreau nanofluid, the effect of Cattaneo–Christov heat flux is studied on a natural convective flow of Carreau nanofluid past a vertical plate with the periodic variations of surface temperature and the concentration of species. Buongiorno model is considered for nanofluid transport, which includes the relative slip mechanisms, Brownian motion and thermophoresis.Design/methodology/approach: The governing equations are non-dimensionalized using suitable transformations, further reduced to non-similar form using stream function formulation and solved by local non-similarity method with homotopy analysis method. The numerical computations are validated and verified by comparing with earlier published results and are found to be in good agreement.Findings: The effects of varying the physical parameters such as Prandtl number, Schmidt number, Weissenberg number, thermophoresis parameter, Brownian motion parameter and buoyancy ratio parameter on velocity, temperature and species concentration are discussed and presented through graphs. The results explored that the velocity of shear thinning fluid is raised by increasing the Weissenberg number, while contrary response is seen for the shear thickening fluid. It is also found that heat transfer in Cattaneo–Christov heat conduction model is less than that in Fourier’s heat conduction model. Furthermore, the temperature and thermal boundary layer thickness expand with the increase in thermophoresis and Brownian motion parameter, whereas nanoparticle volume fraction increases with increase in thermophoresis parameter, but reverse trend is observed with increase in Brownian motion parameter.Originality/value: The present investigation is relatively original as very little research has been reported on Carreau nanofluids under the effect of Cattaneo–Christov heat flux model.