Effects of Magnetic Field and Thermal Radiation on Stagnation Flow and Heat Transfer of a Power-Law Fluid over a Shrinking Sheet

Abstract EN

An analysis is made on the steady two-dimensional boundary layer magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) stagnation-point flow and radiative heat transfer of an electrically conducting power-law fluid over a shrinking sheet which is shrunk in its own plane with a velocity proportional to the distance from a fixed point.

The similarity transformations are used to transform the boundary layer equations into a system of nonlinear ordinary differential equations which are then solved numerically using shooting technique.

It is found that multiple solutions exist for a certain range of the ratio of the shrinking velocity to the free stream velocity (i.e., α) which again depends on the magnetic parameter (M) and the power-law index parameter (n).

The results pertaining to the present study indicate that as the strength of the magnetic parameter increases, the range of α where similarity solutions exist gradually increases.

It is also observed that the temperature at a point decreases with increase in M for the first solution branch, whereas it increases with increase in M for the second solution branch.

The reported results are in good agreement with the available published work in the literature.