Influence of power-law index and hybrid-nanoparticles concentrations on the behavior of non-Newtonian hybrid nanofluid inside water solar collector

Abstract

Nowadays, there is great attention given to solar collectors (SCs) for their important applications based on the advantages of nanotechnology and solar radiation. Hybrid nanofluid (HNF) is our first option due to its thermophysical properties that help in improving the overall performance, unlike other nanofluids. This paper gives a detailed novel analysis of SCs with the existence of Newtonian, power-law HNF in unsteady conditions and a three-dimensional model under the consideration of Brownian motion and thermophoresis parameter. In this research, the group transformation method (GTM) and similarity transformation steady state fluid dynamics are used to transform the mathematical model into a simpler system. This coupled system of ordinary differential equations with the related functions, dimensionless entropy generation and Bejan number is achieved at two cases of power-law index. The impact of involved parameters on velocity profile, temperature distribution, concentration field, entropy output of the system and Bejan number is depicted prominently by various graphs. The fluid velocity shows improvement with higher values of power-law index and shape factor, while it diminishes with magnetic parameter and Prandtl number. Enhancing the values of magnetic field and shape factor, results in increase of temperature characteristic which decreases with Prandtl number and power-law index. Increment in the concentration ratio parameter leads to maximize the entropy generation, whereas entropy generation diminishes with higher values of temperature ratio and magnetic parameter. The obtained results and the previously published work are compared qualitatively and quantitatively to each other to validate that the applied method is more efficient. It is predicted that the Nusselt number improves by 28.18% when the Prandtl number is taken range [Formula: see text]. The percentage of increasing in Sherwood number is noted to be 18.61% for range [Formula: see text] of Brownian motion parameter.