Mixed convection heat transfer to cross fluid with thermal radiation: Effects of buoyancy assisting and opposing flows

Abstract

The present investigations proclaim the mixed convection flow and heat transfer of Cross fluid past a vertical stretching sheet taking into account the effects of assisting and opposing buoyancy. In addition, the heat transfer analysis is thoroughly examined corresponding the impact of thermal radiation and convective boundary condition. The modeled boundary layer equations are reduced to couple non-linear ordinary differential equations by endeavoring suitable transformations. The solution of the resulting system of equations is then numerically determined by the help of shooting technique. The influence of the emerging parameters on the flow and heat transfer is investigated with the respective ranges taken as: the Weissenberg number (1 ≤ We ≤ 5), the power-law index (0 ≤ m ≤ 1), the mixed convection parameter ( − 0.51 ≤ λ ≤ 0.5), the Prandtl number (0.7≤Pr≤70), the radiation parameter (0.1 ≤ R ≤ 1) and the Biot number (0.1 ≤ γ ≤ 1.5). Comparative plots are provided for the case of assisting as well as opposing flows. Few of the several significant findings of the paper are: (i) the growing values of local Weissenberg number reduces the local skin friction coefficient, (ii) the radiation parameter and Biot number increases the thermal boundary layer thickness and the effects are much prominent for opposing flow. The validity of the numerical results is ensured by making comparison with existing work as special cases.