Hydromagnetic nanofluid flow between rotating disks with heat source and Darcy dissipation: Enhanced thermal management via entropy optimization

Abstract

This study investigates the thermal management potential of a nanofluid mixture of Methanol and AA7072 aluminum alloy in convective flow between two parallel spinning disks, incorporating heat source and Darcy dissipation effects. The flow configuration is analyzed under an applied magnetic field to evaluate its efficacy for heat dissipation in electronic cooling systems and microsystems. The governing equations are transformed into a dimensionless form using similarity transformations and solved using the Runge-Kutta (RK) method with the shooting technique. The influence of the magnetic field, radiation, Brinkman number, Darcy dissipation, heat source, and nanoparticle volume fraction on entropy generation, temperature distribution, velocity profiles, Nusselt number, and skin friction are systematically examined. Results indicate that stronger magnetic fields, higher radiation, and increased nanoparticle volume fractions significantly enhance heat transfer, reducing thermal resistance in microfluidic cooling systems. Skin friction is reduced by 33% (1.94–1.30) when Da is increased from 0.1 to 0.4, demonstrating that the permeability of porous media improves flow efficiency. The Nusselt number decreases by 40%–67% as Q is increased from 0.1 to 0.4, illustrating how surface heat transport is compromised by internal heat generation. The study demonstrates that the nanofluid mixture outperforms pure Methanol in terms of thermal and flow properties, making it a promising candidate for improving heat dissipation efficiency in advanced thermal management systems.