Flow and heat transfer of a non-Newtonian fluid past a stretching sheet with partial slip

The entrained flow and heat transfer of a non-Newtonian third grade fluid due to a linearly stretching surface with partial slip is considered. The partial slip is controlled by a dimensionless slip factor, which varies between zero (total adhesion) and infinity (full slip). Suitable similarity transformations are used to reduce the resulting highly nonlinear partial differential equations into ordinary differential equations. The issue of paucity of boundary conditions is addressed and an effective second order numerical scheme has been adopted to solve the obtained differential equations even without augmenting any extra boundary conditions. The important finding in this communication is the combined effects of the partial slip and the third grade fluid parameter on the velocity, skin-friction coefficient and the temperature field. It is interesting to find that the slip and the third grade fluid parameter have opposite effects on the velocity and the thermal boundary layers (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V All rights reserved.