Unsteady MHD boundary-layer flow and heat transfer due to stretching sheet in the presence of heat source or sink

This paper deals with the numerical study of unsteady laminar magnetohydrodynamics (MHDs) boundary-layer flow and heat transfer of incompressible, viscous and electrically conducting fluid. The flow is considered over a stretching sheet in the presence of transverse magnetic field with heat source/sink. Similarity transformations are used to transform the governing nonlinear boundary-layer equations to coupled higher order non-linear ordinary differential equations. These equations were numerically solved using implicit finite difference scheme known as Keller-box method. The effect of the governing parameters on velocity and temperature profiles is computed, analyzed and discussed. Besides, the local skin friction coefficient and local Nusselt number are computed and presented in tabular form. It is found that heat source has a significant influence on increasing rate of heat transfer. The computed results are compared with previously reported work and have good agreement with earlier studies. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.