Radiation effects on MHD flow in a porous space

This paper deals with the study of the radiation effects on the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) flow of an incompressible viscous fluid in a porous space. The flow is induced due to a non-linear stretching sheet. Two cases of heat transfer analysis are discussed. These are: (i) the sheet with constant surface temperature (CST case) and (ii) the sheet with prescribed surface temperature (PST case). By means of similarity transformation, the governing partial differential equations are reduced into highly non-linear ordinary differential equations. The resulting non-linear system has been solved analytically using a very efficient technique namely homotopy analysis method (HAM). Expressions for velocity and temperature fields are developed in series form. Convergence of the series solution is shown explicitly. The influence of various pertinent parameters is also seen on the velocity and temperature fields. The tabulated values of the wall shear stress and the Nusselt number show good agreement with the existing results. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.