Micropolar fluid flow towards a stretching/shrinking sheet in a porous medium with suction

This paper presents a numerical analysis of a micropolar fluid flow towards a permeable stretching/shrinking sheet in a porous medium. The governing nonlinear partial differential equations are transformed into a system of ordinary differential equations by a similarity transformation, before being solved numerically by a finite-difference scheme known as the Keller-box method. The effects of the governing parameters on the fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics are illustrated graphically. It is found that dual solutions exist for the shrinking case, whereas for the stretching case, the solution is unique. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.