PEO–WATER (0.1 WT%) BASED MAXWELL NANOFLUIDS: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF BASE, MONO-, HYBRID-, TRI-, AND TETRA-HYBRID CASES WITH ENTROPY GENERATION, BEJAN NUMBER, AND TRADE-OFF PERSPECTIVES

Abstract

This study presents a comparative thermodynamic analysis of slip-influenced Maxwell magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) nanofluid flow over a stretching cylinder with a polymer-enhanced water base containing 0.1 wt% polyethylene oxide (PEO). Five fluid cases are considered—base fluid, mono-, hybrid-, tri-, and tetra-hybrid nanofluids, where the tetra-hybrid suspension comprises ,  and  nanoparticles. The formulation accounts for velocity and thermal slip, thermal radiation, and nonlinear heat generation/absorption. Using similarity transformations, the governing Maxwell-based boundary-layer equations are reduced to a system of coupled nonlinear ordinary differential equations, which are solved numerically via MATLAB’s bvp4c solver. Comparative entropy generation and Bejan number analyses are performed to quantify irreversibility mechanisms, while Pareto-type plots between Nusselt number and integrated entropy provide a trade-off perspective between heat-transfer enhancement and thermodynamic penalty. Results confirm that the tetra-hybrid nanofluid achieves the most favourable balance, consistently delivering higher heat transfer with reduced entropy generation compared to the mono-, hybrid-, and tri-hybrid counterparts. These findings underscore the promise of polymer-assisted tetra-hybrid nanofluids for energy-efficient thermal management applications.