A New Numerical Approach to MHD Maxwellian Nanofluid Flow Past an Impulsively Stretching Sheet

In this paper, we consider the problem of unsteady laminar boundary layer flow, induced by an impulsive stretching sheet and heat transfer of visco elastic nanofluid. The paper combines the effects of magnetic force, elasticity number, Brownian motion, thermophoresis, Lewis number and time-dependence on the flow properties. The proposed mathematical formulation is introduced for the first time to model the boundary-layer flow and heat transfer over an impulsive stretching surface in a nanofluid. The non-linear partial differential equations that describe the flow are solved by a new bivariate spectral quasi-linearisation method based on a bivariate Lagrange interpolation collocation method. The proposed method is shown to be convergent and effective in giving accurate solutions. It is found that time, magnetic parameter, elasticity number, Brownian motion parameter, thermophoresis parameter and Lewis number all have a significant influence on the fluid velocity, temperature and nanoparticle concentration. Thermal and concentration boundary layer thickness increase with the increase of elasticity parameter. The proposed bivariate collocation method is shown to converge rapidly and gives accurate results.