Finite element solution of MHD power-law fluid with slip velocity effect and non-uniform heat source/sink

• Published in: Computational & applied mathematics Vol. 37; no. 2; pp. 1737 - 1755
• Main Authors: Poonia, Minakshi, Bhargava, R.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 01.05.2018; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Applications of Mathematics; Applied physics; Boundary layer flow; Chemical industry; Computational fluid dynamics; Computational mathematics; Computational Mathematics and Numerical Analysis; Cooling rate; Differential equations; Finite element method; Flow equations; Fluid flow; Galerkin method; Heat exchangers; Heat transfer; Incompressible flow; Laminar boundary layer; Laminar flow; Magnetohydrodynamics; Mathematical Applications in Computer Science; Mathematical Applications in the Physical Sciences; Mathematics; Mathematics and Statistics; Nonlinear equations; Ordinary differential equations; Parameters; Physical properties; Pseudoplasticity; Slip; Slip velocity; Temperature dependence; Trustworthiness; Velocity distribution; Moving surface; Slip velocity; Secondary 80A20; 35Q35; Primary 76D10; MHD; Non-uniform heat source/sink; Power-law fluid; 65H10; FEM
• ISSN: 0101-8205; 2238-3603; 1807-0302
• DOI: 10.1007/s40314-017-0421-5

The laminar steady boundary layer flow of an incompressible MHD Power-law fluid past a continuously moving surface is investigated numerically. The study involves the influence of surface slip and non-uniform heat source/sink on the flow and heat transfer. The governing boundary layer flow equations are transformed into non-dimensional, non-linear coupled ordinary differential equations with the help of suitable similarity transformations. The Galerkin finite element method is implemented to crack the resulting system. The impact of different involved physical parameters is exhibited on the dimensionless velocity profile, temperature distributions and rate of heat transfer in graphical and tabular forms for pseudoplastic and dilatant fluids. The local Nusselt number is found to be the decreasing function of slip parameter, temperature and space-dependent heat sink parameter whereas it increases with increasing values of temperature and space dependent heat source parameter. The problem has important application in attaining the sustainable heat transfer rate for the cooling of fluids, especially in heat exchangers used frequently in chemical industry, in order to increase the trustworthiness of a system, as it removes high heat loads from these systems.