Irreversibility analysis for nanofluid flow in a rocket engine with MHD effects

Abstract A study is carried out to investigate the irreversibility analysis of heat transfer and entropy generation in a rocket engine regenerative cooling channel considering magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) effects. In this study, a water‐based nanofluid consisting of titanium dioxide (TiO₂), copper oxide (CuO), and alumina dioxide (Al 2 O 3 ) Nanoparticles was investigated for its ability to improve cooling. The differential equations that govern the system of flow are hence converted into the non‐dimensional form using similarity transformation techniques and solved numerically by the 4th order Runge–Kutta method for the shooting approach. These key variables, namely Nusselt number and entropy generation rate are then dealt, with graphically in order to demonstrate the influencing parameters on the hydrothermal efficiency of the cooling system. The results show that increasing the concentration of nanoparticles and magnetic field intensity can effectively improve the cooling effectiveness and decrease entropy generation within the structure. The practical outcome is for aerospace engineers to know how TiO₂‐based nanofluids could effectively serve as a coolant in the design of future rocket engines. Incorporating MHD effects also improves heat transfer, and hence offers a route for efficient regenerative cooling system design in high‐temperature aerospace systems. These results help in designing superior space propulsion thermal management techniques, offering orders of magnitude improvement for the reliability and performance of rocket engines. This work is seen as a starting point for future studies and the quest to explore alternative MHD nanofluid combinations of base fluid, and nanoparticle materials besides non‐linear magnetic hydrodynamic effects including modeling required with turpening phenomena. The numerical studies and experiments would strengthen the understanding, which can be used as design criteria for applying nanofluid‐based cooling in future applications of rocket engines. The findings of this study lay a strong basis for the optimization of cooling designs and integration to enhance efficiency in rocket propulsion.