Effect of variable density on hydromagnetic mixed convection flow of a non-Newtonian fluid past a moving vertical plate

Abstract

Abstract The effect of temperature-dependent density on MHD mixed convection flow of power-law fluid past a moving semi-infinite vertical plate for high temperature differences between the plate and the ambient fluid is studied. The fluid density is assumed to decrease exponentially with temperature. The usual Boussinesq approximations are not considered due to the large temperature differences. The surface temperature of the moving plate was assumed to vary according to a power-law form, that is, T w ( x ) = T ∞ + Ax γ . The fluid is permeated by a uniform magnetic field imposed perpendicularly to the plate on the assumption of small magnetic Reynolds number. A numerical shooting algorithm for two unknown initial conditions with fourth-order Runge–Kutta integration scheme has been used to solve the coupled non-linear boundary value problem. The effects of various parameters on the velocity and temperature profiles as well as the local skin-friction coefficient and the local Nusselt number are presented graphically and in the tabular form. The results show that application of Boussinesq approximations in a non-Newtonian fluid subjected to high temperature differences gives a significant error in the values of the skin-friction coefficient and the application of an external magnetic field reduces this error markedly in the case of shear-thickening fluid.