Effect of thermal radiation on velocity and temperature fields of a thin liquid film over a stretching sheet in a porous medium

Abstract

An analytical approach using the least-squares method (LSM) has been carried out to study the effect of thermal radiation on the flow and heat transfer in a thin liquid film over an unsteady stretching sheet embedded in a porous medium. Similarity transformations were used to convert the momentum, continuity and energy equations describing the problem, which are coupled nonlinear partial differential equations into a set of nonlinear ordinary differential equations. The resulting set of Ordinary Differential Equation (ODE) is then solved analytically by the least-squares method. By comparing the results of the applied method with previously published work the accuracy of the proposed method has been verified. Finally the effects of different outstanding parameters in this particular case such as the Darcy parameter, the radiation parameter and the Prandtl number on the flow velocity and temperature profiles are communicated.