Series solutions for unsteady laminar MHD flow near forward stagnation point of an impulsively rotating and translating sphere in presence of buoyancy forces

Abstract

The similarity solution for the unsteady laminar incompressible boundary layer flow of a viscous electrically conducting fluid in stagnation point region of an impulsively rotating and translating sphere with a magnetic field and a buoyancy force gives a system of non-linear partial differential equations. These non-linear differential equations are analytically solved by applying a newly developed method, namely the homotopy analysis method (HAM). The analytic solutions of the system of non-linear differential equations are constructed in the series form. The convergence of the obtained series solutions is carefully analyzed. Graphical results are presented to investigate the influence of the magnetic parameter, buoyancy parameter and rotation parameter on the surface shear stresses and surface heat transfer. It is noted that the behavior of the HAM solution for the surface shear stresses and surface heat transfer is in good agreement with the numerical solution given in reference [H. S. Takhar, A. J. Chamkha, G. Nath, Unsteady laminar MHD flow and heat transfer in the stagnation region of an impulsively spinning and translating sphere in the presence of buoyancy forces, Heat Mass Transfer 37 (2001) 397].