Thermal radiation effects on magnetohydrodynamic mixed convection flow of a micropolar fluid past a continuously moving semi-infinite plate for high temperature differences

Abstract

An analysis is presented to study the effect of radiation on magnetohydrodynamic mixed convective steady laminar boundary layer flow of an optically thick electrically conducting viscous micropolar fluid past a moving semi-infinite vertical plate for high temperature differences. A uniform magnetic field is applied perpendicular to the moving plate. The density of the micropolar fluid is assumed to reduce exponentially with temperature. The usual Boussinesq approximation is neglected because of the high temperature differences between the plate and the ambient fluid. The Rosseland approximation is used to describe the radiative heat flux in the energy equation. The resulting governing equations are transformed using a similarity transformation and then solved numerically by applying an efficient technique. The effects of radiation parameter R, magnetic parameter M, couple parameter Δ and density/temperature parameter n on the velocity, angular velocity and temperature profiles as well as the local skin friction coefficient, wall couple stress and the local Nusselt number are presented graphically and in tabular form.