Abstract
Purpose This study aims to investigate the flow and heat transfer of a hybrid nanofluid through an exponentially stretching/shrinking sheet along with mixed convection and Joule heating. The nanoparticles alumina (Al2O3) and copper (Cu) are suspended into a base fluid (water) to form a new kind of hybrid nanofluid (Al2O3-Cu/water). Also, the effects of constant mixed convection parameter and Joule heating are considered. Design/methodology/approach The governing partial differential equations are transformed into ordinary differential equations (ODEs) using appropriate similarity transformations. The transformed nonlinear ODEs are solves using the bvp4c solver available in MATLAB software. A comparison of the present results shows a good agreement with the published results. Findings Dual solutions for hybrid nanofluid flow obtained for a specific range of the stretching/shrinking parameter values. The values of the skin friction coefficient increases but the local Nusselt number decreases for the first solution with the increasing of the magnetic parameter. Enhancing copper volume fraction and Eckert number reduces the surface temperature, which intimates the decrement of heat transfer rate for the first and second solutions for the stretching/shrinking sheet. In detail, the first solution results show that when the Eckert number increases as 0.1, 0.4 and 0.7 at lambda = 1.5, the temperature variations reduced to 10.686840, 10.671419 and 10.655996. While in the second solution, keeping the same parameters temperature variation reduced to 9.750777, 9.557349 and 9.364489, respectively. On the other hand, the results indicate that the skin friction coefficient increases with copper volume fraction. This study shows that the thermal boundary layer thickness rises due to the rise in the solid volume fraction. It is also observed that the magnetic parameter, copper volume fraction and Eckert number widen the range of the stretching/shrinking parameter for which the solution exists. Practical implications In practice, the investigation on the flow and heat transfer of a hybrid nanofluid past an exponentially stretching/shrinking sheet with mixed convection and Joule heating is crucial and useful. The problems related to hybrid nanofluid have numerous real-life and industrial applications, such as microelectronics, manufacturing, naval structures, nuclear system cooling, biomedical and drug reduction. Originality/value In specific, this study focuses on increasing thermal conductivity using a hybrid nanofluid mathematical model. The novelty of this study is the use of natural mixed convection and Joule heating in a hybrid nanofluid. This paper can obtain dual solutions. The authors declare that this study is new, and there is no previous published work similar to the present study.