Non-Newtonian Power Law Fluid Flow and Heat Transfer in a Porous Medium Over a Nonisothermal Stretching Sheet

Abstract

In this paper, we present a numerical solution for heat transfer in the flow of a non-Newtonian power law fluid immersed in a saturated porous medium over a nonisothermal stretching sheet in the presence of internal heat generation/absorption. Thermal conductivity is assumed to vary as a linear function of temperature. Similarity transformations are used to convert highly nonlinear partial differential equations into ordinary differential equations. The resulting coupled nonlinear ordinary differential equations are solved numerically by the efficient Keller box method for two different cases, namely, a surface with prescribed surface temperature and surface with prescribed wall heat flux. The important findings of our study are that the effect of the power law index is to decrease the horizontal velocity boundary layer thickness and thermal boundary layer thickness. The effect of the porous parameter is to reduce the horizontal boundary layer thickness and increase the thermal boundary layer thickness. © 2008 Begell House, Inc.