Heat transfer improvement and irreversibility optimization in ethylene glycol-based radiative ternary hybrid...

Entropy generation (EG) analysis is essential for improving the thermodynamic efficiency of advanced thermal systems and has broad applications in engineering, including vehicle engines, nuclear reactors, refrigeration systems, air-conditioning units, and thermal management technologies. Motivated by these applications, the present study investigates magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) entropy generation in an ethylene glycol-based ternary hybrid nanofluid (THNF) flow over a porous stretching sheet. The THNF is synthesized by suspending the nanoparticles of silver (Ag), titanium dioxide, (TiO₂) and copper (Cu) into ethylene glycol. The mathematical model incorporates Joule heating, thermal radiation, viscous dissipation, and a first-order chemical reaction to realistically describe the heat and mass transfer characteristics. EG is formulated based on the second law of thermodynamics. The governing partial differential equations(PDEs) are transformed into a system of ordinary differential equations(ODEs) using suitable similarity transformations and solved numerically using the NDSolve routine in Mathematica. The effects of various important flow parameters on the temperature, concentration, velocity, EG, and Bejan number of THNF and hybrid nanofluid(HNF) are reported through graphs. Quantities of engineering interest are studied numerically. The results demonstrate that increasing the magnetic and porosity parameters suppresses the fluid velocity owing to enhanced resistive forces, whereas thermal radiation and viscous dissipation significantly elevate the temperature field. In contrast, a higher Prandtl number weakens thermal diffusion and consequently reduces the temperature distribution. The concentration profile decreases with increasing chemical reaction strength due to accelerated consumption of species. Furthermore, EG intensifies as the Brinkman number, radiation parameter, and diffusion parameter increase, indicating enhanced thermodynamic irreversibility. Furthermore, the THNF exhibits up to 8% enhancement in the skin-friction coefficient and a 5.5% improvement in the heat-transfer rate compared with the corresponding HNF, demonstrating the superior transport performance of the THNF.