Prandtl ternary nanofluid flow with MHD, Porosity, and thermal effects over a 3D stretching surface with convective boundary conditions

Abstract

This comprehensive numerical study of three-dimensional Prandtl ternary ferrofluid flow over a stretching surface considers the combined effects of Darcy–Forchheimer drag, activation energy, thermal radiation, Brownian motion, thermophoresis, heat generation/absorption, porous media, mass diffusivity, and magnetohydrodynamics (MHD). Ferrofluid is created by dispersing copper (Cu), iron oxide ($F{e}_3{O}_4$), and cobalt ferrite ($CoF{e}_2{O}_4$) nanoparticles in a water-based Prandtl fluid in order to enhance thermal conductivity and magnetic permeability. The model includes radiative and non-Fourier heat conduction for realistic thermal representation, while the Darcy–Forchheimer approach characterises linear and nonlinear resistance in porous structures. Convective boundary conditions are used to replicate realistic heat exchange at the surface.

The governing partial differential equations of mass, momentum, energy, and species concentration are reduced by similarity transformations into a system of nonlinear ordinary differential equations. For computational accuracy, the shooting technique is employed to numerically solve these equations. The study looks at the parametric impacts of radiation, heat source/sink, Schmidt number, activated energy, magnetic field strength, porosity, Forchheimer number, Brownian motion, and thermophoresis. In addition to assessments of skin friction, Nusselt number, and Sherwood number, the distributions of temperature, velocity, and concentration are examined using tabular and graphical results.

The results show that thermal radiation and thermophoresis improve thermal dispersion, but greater porosity and magnetic intensity reduce velocity because of greater resistance. Because of finite mass diffusivity, concentration falls with increasing Schmidt numbers and activation energy. For engineering systems incorporating magnetic nanofluids and porous media, this work offers insightful information on transport phenomena. These systems have applications in materials processing, thermal management, and biomedical engineering.