Thermal analysis in swirling flow of titanium dioxide–aluminum oxide water hybrid nanofluid over a rotating cylinder

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the flow features and heat transfer in the presence of nanoparticles which are used to enhance the thermo-physical properties such as thermal diffusivity, thermal conductivity and heat transfer coefficient of the base fluid. In this work, we analyze thermal features of hybrid nanofluid flow over a stretchable swirling cylinder. Titanium dioxide $$\left( \text {TiO} _{2}\right)$$ , and aluminum oxide $$\left( \text {Al}_{2}\text {O} _{3}\right)$$ are taken as nanoparticles with water as a base fluid. Moreover, the significant characteristics of magnetic flux, thermal radiation and viscous dissipation have been considered to control the flow and thermal mechanisms. The governing system of partial differential equations (PDEs) is transformed into system of ordinary differential equations (ODEs) by mean of similarity transformations. The numerical and graphical results for the flow and heat transfer are obtained by employing a technique, namely bvp4c in MATLAB. The arising parameters which influence the physical problem such as Reynolds number, magnetic field parameter, volume concentration of nanoparticles, radiation parameter, Eckert numbers and Prandtl number are discussed against flow and thermal fields. The analysis eventually proves that nanoparticles are more superior for heat transfer enhancement than usual fluids. An increment in the rate of heat transfer is revealed with an increase in volume fraction of the nanoparticles.