This study aimed to investigate the consequences of the Darcy-Forchheimer medium and thermal radiation in the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) Maxwell nanofluid flow subject to a stretching surface. The involvement of the Maxwell model provided more relaxation time to the momentum boundary layer formulation. The thermal radiation appearing from the famous Rosseland approximation was involved in the energy equation. The significant features arising from Buongiorno's model, i.e., thermophoresis and Brownian diffusion, were retained. Governing equations, the two-dimensional partial differential equations based on symmetric components of non-Newtonian fluids in the Navier-Stokes model, were converted into one-dimensional ordinary differential equations using transformations. For fixed values of physical parameters, the solutions of the governing ODEs were obtained using the homotopy analysis method. The appearance of non-dimensional coefficients in velocity, temperature, and concentration were physical parameters. The critical parameters included thermal radiation, chemical reaction, the porosity factor, the Forchheimer number, the Deborah number, the Prandtl number, thermophoresis, and Brownian diffusion. Results were plotted in graphical form. The variation in boundary layers and corresponding profiles was discussed, followed by the concluding remarks. A comparison of the Nusselt number (heat flux rate) was also framed in graphical form for convective and non-convective/simple boundary conditions at the surface. The outcomes indicated that the thermal radiation increased the temperature profile, whereas the chemical reaction showed a reduction in the concentration profile. The drag force (skin friction) showed sufficient enhancement for the augmented values of the porosity factor. The rates of heat and mass flux also fluctuated for various values of the physical parameters. The results can help model oil reservoirs, geothermal engineering, groundwater management systems, and many others.
Keywords: Brownian diffusion; Darcy–Forchheimer model; Maxwell nanofluid; chemical reaction; thermal radiation.