Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate analytically the steady general three-dimensional stagnation-point flow of an aqueous titania-copper hybrid nanofluid past a circular cylinder that has a sinusoidal radius variation. Design/methodology/approach: First, the analytic modeling of hybrid nanofluid is presented, and using appropriate similarity variables, the governing equations are transformed into nonlinear ordinary differential equations in the dimensionless stream function, which is solved by the well-known function bvp4c from MATLAB. Findings: The current solution demonstrates good agreement with those of the previously published studies in the special cases of regular fluid and nanofluids. Graphical results are presented to investigate the influences of the titania and copper nanoparticle volume fractions and also the nodal/saddle indicative parameter on flow and heat transfer characteristics. Here, the thermal characteristics of hybrid nanofluid are found to be higher in comparison to the base fluid and fluid containing single nanoparticles. An important point to note is that the developed model can be used with great confidence to study the flow and heat transfer of hybrid nanofluids. Originality/value: Analytic modeling of hybrid nanofluid is the important originality of present study. Hybrid nanofluids are potential fluids that offer better heat transfer performance and thermophysical properties than convectional heat transfer fluids (oil, water and ethylene glycol) and nanofluids with single nanoparticles. In this investigation, titania (TiO₂, 50 nm), copper (Cu, 20 nm) and the hybrid of these two are separately dispersed into the water as the base fluid and analyzed.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to study the steady laminar magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) flow of a magnesium oxide-silver/water hybrid nanofluid along a horizontal slim needle with thermal radiation by considering dual solutions.Design/methodology/approach: It is assumed that the needle can move in the same or opposite direction of the free stream. Also the solid phase and fluid phase are in thermal equilibrium. The basic partial differential equations become dimensionless using a similarity transformation method. Moreover, problem coding is accomplished using the finite difference method. The emerging parameters are nanoparticles mass (0–40 gr), base fluid mass (100 gr), needle’s size (0.001–0.2), magnetic field parameter, velocity ratio parameter, radiation parameter and Prandtl number (6.2).Findings: With help of the stability analysis, it is shown that always the first solutions are physically stable. Results indicate that the magnetic parameter and the second nanoparticle’s mass limit the range of the velocity ratio parameter for which the solution exists. Besides, the magnetic parameter leads to decrease of quantities of engineering interest, i.e. skin friction coefficient and local Nusselt number.Originality/value: To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no one has ever attempted to study the present problem through a mass-based model for hybrid nanofluid. Moreover, the dual solutions for the problem are new. Indeed, the results of this paper are purely original and the numerical achievements were never published up to now. Finally, the authors expect that the present investigation would be useful in hot-wire anemometer or shielded thermocouple for measuring the velocity of the wind, etc.

The purpose of this study is to present simulation and numerical solutions to the unsteady flow and heat transfer near stagnation point over a stretching/shrinking sheet in porous medium filled with a hybrid nanofluid. Water (base fluid), nanoparticles of titania and copper were considered as a hybrid nanofluid. It is worth mentioning that evaluating the heat transfer enhancement due to the use of hybrid nanofluids has recently become the center of interest for many researchers. The coupled non-linear boundary-layer equations governing the flow and heat transfer are derived and reduced to a set of coupled non-dimensional equations using the appropriate transformations and then solved numerically as a nonlinear boundary value problem by bvp4c scheme from MATLAB. To validate the modeling of hybrid nanofluid and also numerical procedure, the value of the skin friction and the heat transfer rate for the limited cases of pure water, titania/water and copper/water is obtained and compared with previously reported results that demonstrate an excellent agreement. In the present investigation, the thermal characteristics of hybrid nanofluid are found to be higher in comparison to the base fluid and fluid containing single nanoparticles, respectively. It can be concluded that both skin friction coefficient and local Nusselt number enhance almost linearly with increasing the copper nanoparticle volume fraction (as second nanoparticle). Besides, the porosity and the magnetic effect amplify heat transfer rate, while the unsteadiness parameter has a reducing effect on heat transfer rate in problem conditions.

In this analysis, the flow and heat transfer characteristics of an aqueous hybrid nanofluid with TiO2 and Cu as the nanoparticles past a horizontal slim needle in the presence of thermal radiation effect is investigated. We hope that the present research is applicable in fiber technology, polymer ejection, blood flow, etc. The Prandtl number of the base fluid is kept constant at 6.2. The needle is considered thin when its thickness does not exceed that of the boundary layer over it. Using the similarity transformation method, the governing PDEs are transformed to a set of non-linear ODEs. Then, the converted ODEs are numerically solved with help of bvp4c routine from MATLAB. Results indicate that the dual similarity solutions are obtained only when the slim needle moves in the opposite direction of the free stream. In addition, the first solutions are stable and physically realizable. Besides, the second nanoparticle's mass and also the magnetic parameter lead to decrease the range of the velocity ratio parameter for which the solution exists.