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

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. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.