Impact of thermal radiation on electrical MHD flow of nanofluid over nonlinear stretching sheet with variable thickness

The present paper addresses magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) flow of nanofluid towards nonlinear stretched surface with variable thickness in the presence of electric field. The analysis is presented with viscous dissipation, Joule heating, and chemical reaction. Characteristics of heat transfer are analyzed with the electric field and variable thickness phenomenon. The partial differential equations are converted into dimensionless ordinary differential equations by employing suitable transformations. Implicit finite difference scheme is implemented to solve the governing dimensionless problems. Behaviors of several sundry variables on the flow and heat transfer are scrutinized. Skin friction coefficient, the local Nusselt number local Sherwood number are presented and evaluated. It is observed that the skin friction, the rate of heat and mass transfer reduces with a rise in wall thickness. Electric field enhances the nanofluid velocity and temperature but reduced the concentration. Thermal radiation is sensitive to an increase in the nanofluid temperature and thicker thermal boundary layer thickness. Obtained results are also compared with the available data in the limiting case and good agreement is noted. (C) 2017 Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V.