International Journal of Chemical Engineering (Jan 2016)
Effects of Thermal Radiation on Mixed Convection Flow of a Micropolar Fluid from an Unsteady Stretching Surface with Viscous Dissipation and Heat Generation/Absorption
Abstract
A numerical model is developed to examine the effects of thermal radiation on unsteady mixed convection flow of a viscous dissipating incompressible micropolar fluid adjacent to a heated vertical stretching surface in the presence of the buoyancy force and heat generation/absorption. The Rosseland approximation is used to describe the radiative heat flux in the energy equation. The model contains nonlinear coupled partial differential equations which have been converted into ordinary differential equation by using the similarity transformations. The dimensionless governing equations for this investigation are solved by Runge-Kutta-Fehlberg fourth fifth-order method with shooting technique. Numerical solutions are then obtained and investigated in detail for different interesting parameters such as the local skin-friction coefficient, wall couple stress, and Nusselt number as well as other parametric values such as the velocity, angular velocity, and temperature.