ABSTRACT

Magnetohydrodynamic boundary layer flow involving a fluid of varying viscosity subject to thermal radiation and Newtonian heating has various applications in industry and engineering some of the applications include designing of cooling systems used in electronic devices, cooling of nuclear reactors, harvesting of solar energy, thermal insulation, heat exchangers and in geothermal reservoirs. Heat transfer by thermal radiation is of significance to engineering processes that occurs at high temperature and plays a major role in designing of equipment used in Nuclear reactors, gas turbines and equipment for propelling air crafts, missiles, satellites and rockets. In this study we use the fourth order Runge-Kutta method and the shooting technique to find the numerical solution to the equations of fluid flow governing the boundary layer flow of a varying viscosity electrically conducting fluid that is subjected to a constant magnetic field in the presence of thermal radiation and Newtonian heating. The graphical results depicting the effects of various thermophysical parameters on the velocity and temperature profiles of the fluid are presented and then discussed quantitatively. From the study we note that the velocity of the fluid increases with the increase in the values of magnetic parameter and variable viscosity parameter. Furthermore temperature of the fluid increases with increase in the values of magnetic field parameter, Brinkmann number and local Biot number and decreases with the increase in thermal radiation parameter and variable viscosity parameter.