Stagnation-point flow toward a vertical, nonlinearly stretching sheet with prescribed surface heat flux

Abstract

An analysis is carried out to study the steady two-dimensional stagnation-point flow of an incompressible viscous fluid towards a stretching vertical sheet. It is assumed that the sheet is stretched nonlinearly, with prescribed surface heat flux. This problem is governed by three parameters: buoyancy, velocity exponent, and velocity ratio. Both assisting and opposing buoyant flows are considered. The governing partial differential equations are transformed into a system of ordinary differential equations and solved numerically by finite difference Keller-box method. The flow and heat transfer characteristics for different values of the governing parameters are analyzed and discussed. Dual solutions are found in the opposing buoyant flows, while the solution is unique for the assisting buoyant flows. © 2013 Sin Wei Wong et al.