Thermal diffusion and viscoelastic effects in tetra-hybrid nanofluid flow with magnetic field and radiative heat transfer

This study explores the mass and heat transfer in a radiative second-grade liquid consisting of a tetra-hybrid nanofluid on a shrinking/stretching cylinder, including diffusion-thermo and thermal diffusion. The correlations of the Yamada–Ota and Hamilton–Crosser models are utilized to determine the thermal conductivity of a tetra-hybrid nanofluid. Furthermore, stagnation point flow and activation energy are considered. The set of ordinary differential equations is formulated using similarity transformations and solved numerically by the finite difference method. The radiative second-grade viscoelastic flow over a shrinking cylinder with a tetra-hybrid nanofluid is considered. Darcy’s Forchheimer model in the energy equation is novel and explores new perspectives on thermal management in energy systems and heat exchanger design. A higher Forchheimer number and magnetic parameter slow the flow, while increasing the second-grade viscoelastic parameter lowers the nanofluid velocity by up to 14%. Conversely, the temperature increases as the Forchheimer number, Dufour number, Soret number and heat sink parameter increase. This results in a 9%–12% increase in the Nusselt number. The upper branch solutions are significant rather than the lower branch solutions in the velocity fields. Such improved upper-branch velocity simulations are used in oil recovery and polymer processing.