MHD flow and heat transfer of a UCM fluid over a stretching surface with variable thermophysical properties

In this paper we investigate the effects of temperature-dependent viscosity, thermal conductivity and internal heat generation/absorption on the MHD flow and heat transfer of a non-Newtonian UCM fluid over a stretching sheet. The governing partial differential equations are first transformed into coupled non-linear ordinary differential equation using a similarity transformation. The resulting intricate coupled non-linear boundary value problem is solved numerically by a second order finite difference scheme known as Keller-Box method for various values of the pertinent parameters. Numerical computations are performed for two different cases namely, zero and non-zero values of the fluid viscosity parameter. That is, 1/θ _r →0 and 1/θ _r ≠0 to get the effects of the magnetic field and the Maxwell parameter on the velocity and temperature fields, for several physical situations. Comparisons with previously published works are presented as special cases. Numerical results for the skin-friction co-efficient and the Nusselt number with changes in the Maxwell parameter and the fluid viscosity parameter are tabulated for different values of the pertinent parameters. The results obtained for the flow characteristics reveal many interesting behaviors that warrant further study on the non-Newtonian fluid phenomena, especially the UCM fluid phenomena. Maxwell fluid reduces the wall-shear stress.