A comparative study of heat transfer analysis of fractional Maxwell fluid by using Caputo and Caputo–Fabrizio derivatives

Abstract

A comparative analysis is carried out to study the unsteady flow of a Maxwell fluid in the presence of Newtonian heating near a vertical flat plate. The fractional derivatives presented by Caputo and Caputo–Fabrizio are applied to make a physical model for a Maxwell fluid. Exact solutions of the non-dimensional temperature and velocity fields for Caputo and Caputo–Fabrizio time-fractional derivatives are determined via the Laplace transform technique. Numerical solutions of partial differential equations are obtained by employing Tzou’s and Stehfest’s algorithms to compare the results of both models. Exact solutions with integer-order derivative (fractional parameter α = 1) are also obtained for both temperature and velocity distributions as a special case. A graphical illustration is made to discuss the effect of Prandtl number Pr and time t on the temperature field. Similarly, the effects of Maxwell fluid parameter λ and other flow parameters on the velocity field are presented graphically, as well as in tabular form.