PLoS ONE (Jan 2016)

MHD Stagnation-Point Flow of a Carreau Fluid and Heat Transfer in the Presence of Convective Boundary Conditions.

  • Masood Khan,
  • Hashim,
  • Ali Saleh Alshomrani

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0157180
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11, no. 6
p. e0157180

Abstract

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In the present investigation we analyze the impact of magnetic field on the stagnation-point flow of a generalized Newtonian Carreau fluid. The convective surface boundary conditions are considered to investigate the thermal boundary layer. The leading partial differential equations of the current problem are altered to a set of ordinary differential equations by picking local similarity transformations. The developed non-linear ordinary differential equations are then numerically integrated via Runge-Kutta Fehlberg method after changing into initial value problems. This investigation explores that the momentum and thermal boundary layers are significantly influenced by various pertinent parameters like the Hartmann number M, velocity shear ratio parameter α, Weissenberg number We, power law index n, Biot number γ and Prandtl number Pr. The analysis further reveals that the fluid velocity as well as the skin friction is raised by the velocity shear ratio parameter. Moreover, strong values of the Hartmann number correspond to thinning of the momentum boundary layer thickness while quite the opposite is true for the thermal boundary layer thickness. Additionally, it is seen that the numerical computations are in splendid consent with previously reported studies.