Flow and heat transfer in a power-law fluid over a stretching sheet with variable thermal conductivity and non-uniform heat source

Abstract

In this paper the flow of a power-law fluid due to a linearly stretching sheet and heat transfer characteristics using variable thermal conductivity is studied in the presence of a non-uniform heat source/sink. The thermal conductivity is assumed to vary as a linear function of temperature. The similarity transformation is used to convert the governing partial differential equations of flow and heat transfer into a set of non-linear ordinary differential equations. The Keller box method is used to find the solution of the boundary value problem. The effect of power-law index, Chandrasekhar number, Prandtl number, non-uniform heat source/sink parameters and variable thermal conductivity parameter on the dynamics is analyzed. The skin friction and heat transfer coefficients are tabulated for a range of values of said parameters. © 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.