Thin film flow of an unsteady Maxwell fluid over a shrinking/stretching sheet with variable fluid properties

Purpose This paper aims to explore the variable properties of a flow inside the thin film of a unsteady Maxwell fluid and to analyze the effects of shrinking and stretching sheet. Design/methodology/approach The governing mathematical model has been developed by considering the boundary layer limitations. As a result of boundary layer assumption, a nonlinear partial differential equation is obtained. Later on, similarity transformations have been adopted to convert partial differential equation into an ordinary differential equation. A well-known homotopy analysis method is implemented to solve the problem. MATHEMATICA software has been used to visualize the flow behavior. Findings It is observed that variable viscosity does not have a significant effect on velocity field and temperature distribution either in shrinking or stretching case. It is noticed that Maxwell parameter has no dramatic effect on the flow of thin liquid fluid. It has been seen that heat flow increases by increasing the conductivity with temperature in both cases (shrinking/stretching). As a result, fluid temperature goes down when than delta = 0.05 than delta = 0.2. Originality/value To the best of authors' knowledge, nobody has conducted earlier thin film flow of unsteady Maxwell fluid with variable fluid properties and comparison of shrinking and stretching sheet.