Analysis of Heat Transport in a Powell-Eyring Fluid with Radiation and Joule Heating Effects via a Similarity Transformation

Abstract

Heat transfer in an Eyring-Powell fluid that conducts electricity and flows past an exponentially growing sheet is considered. As the sheet is stretched in the x direction, the flow develops in the region with y > 0. The problem is tackled through a set of partial differential equations accounting for Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD), radiation and Joule heating effects, which are converted into a set of equivalent ordinary differential equations through a similarity transformation. The converted problem is solved in MATLAB in the framework a fourth order accurate integration scheme. It is found that the thermal relaxation period is inversely proportional to the thickness of the thermal boundary layer, whereas the Eckert-number displays the opposite trend. As this characteristic number grows, the temperature within the channel increases.