Thermal radiation effects on MHD flow of a micropolar fluid over a stretching surface with variable thermal conductivity

Abstract

In this paper, the effects of variable thermal conductivity and radiation on the flow and heat transfer of an electrically conducting micropolar fluid over a continuously stretching surface with varying temperature in the presence of a magnetic field are considered. The surface temperature is assumed to vary as a power-law temperature. The governing conservation equations of mass, momentum, angular momentum and energy are converted into a system of non-linear ordinary differential equations by means of similarity transformation. The resulting system of coupled non-linear ordinary differential equations is solved numerically. The numerical results show that the thermal boundary thickness increases as the thermal conductivity parameter S increases, while it decreases as the radiation parameter F increases. Also, it was found that the Nusselt number increases as F increases and decreases as S increases.