Heat transfer of convective MHD viscoelastic fluid along a moving inclined plate with power law surface temperature using finite element method

Abstract

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to deal with the study of free convection magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) boundary layer flow of an incompressible viscoelastic fluid along an inclined moving plate and heat transfer characteristics with prescribed quadratic power-law surface temperature.Design/methodology/approach– The governing partial differential equations are transformed into non-dimensional, non-linear coupled ordinary differential equations which are solved numerically by robust Galerkin finite element method.Findings– Numerical results for the dimensionless velocity and temperature profiles are displayed graphically for various physical parameters such as viscoelasticity, Prandtl number, angle of inclination parameter, magnetic and buoyancy parameter. The local Nusselt number is found to be the decreasing function of magnetic field parameter whereas it increases with increasing values of Prandtl number, viscoelastic parameter and buoyancy parameter.Practical implications– The present problem finds significant applications in MHD power generators, cooling of nuclear reactors, thin film solar energy collector devices.Originality/value– The objective of this work is to analyze the heat transfer of convective MHD viscoelastic fluid along a moving inclined plate with quadratic power law surface temperature. An extensively validated, highly efficient, variation finite element code is used to study this problem. The results are validated and demonstrated graphically.