Chemically reactive non-Newtonian fluid flow through a vertical microchannel with activation energy impacts: A numerical investigation

This work examines the second law analysis of an electrically conducting reactive third-grade fluid flow embedded with the porous medium in a microchannel with the influence of variable thermal conductivity, activation energy, viscous dissipation, joule heating, and radiative heat flux. A suitable non-dimensional variable is included into the governing equations to transform them into an ensemble of equations that are devoid of dimensions. The acquired equations are then tackled using the Runge Kutta Felhberg 4th and 5th order (RKF-45) approach in conjunction with the shooting methodology. Through comparison with the current results, the numerical results are verified, which provides a good agreement. From the present outcomes, it is established that the entropy generation is supreme for the viscous heating constraint, variable thermal conductivity, Frank Kameneski, heat source ratio parameter and third-grade fluid material constraint. The Bejan number boosts up with larger values of activation energy, and Frank Kameneski constraint and the decreasing nature is noticed for increasing third-grade material parameter, viscous heating parameter. With magnetism, the fluid’s velocity slows down because of a resistive force. A similar impact in the channel on velocity is noticed for larger third-grade fluid, activation energy parameter, and Frank-Kameniski parameters and increasing behavior is noticed for variable thermal conductivity, and permeability parameter. Further, it is cleared that the variable thermal conductivity assumption in the channel plate leads to a significant under prediction of the irreversibility rate. © The Author(s) 2024.