Heat transfer enhancement in sodium alginate based magnetic and non-magnetic nanoparticles mixture hybrid nanofluid

Abstract Sodium alginate (SA) based hybrid nanofluids are novel new generation of fluids for heat transfer. The thermo-physical properties of these fluids are very classic in comparison to common fluids. This study aims to examine the heat transfer enhancement in viscoplastic non-Newtonian based Cu-Fe3O4 hybrid nanofluid, flowing over a stretching/shrinking sheet. SA is being used as a non-Newtonian viscoplastic base fluid with the addition of Cu and Fe3O4 as non-magnetic and magnetic nanoparticles. In the formulation of the mathematical model, Casson fluid model is exploited to examine the viscoplastic characteristics of SA. The effective thermal conductivity of Cu-Fe3O4 hybrid nanofluid calculated from the Maxwell model (for nanofluid). The exact solution of the nonlinear flow equation is obtained, and the solution of the heat transfer equation is expressed in hypergeometric function through Maple. The effects of consequential parameters such as magnetic parameter, Prandtl number, Casson parameter, Eckert number, and nanoparticles volume fraction on velocity and temperature field are examined. The result of this study suggests that SA based fluid should be used to obtain high rates of heat transfer.