Numerical investigation of MHD free convection flow of a non-Newtonian fluid past an impulsively started vertical plate in the presence of thermal diffusion and radiation absorption

AbstractA numerical investigation is carried out on an unsteady MHD free convection flow of a well-known non-Newtonian visco elastic second order Rivlin-Erickson fluid past an impulsively started semi-infinite vertical plate in the presence of homogeneous chemical reaction, thermal radiation, thermal diffusion, radiation absorption and heat absorption with constant mass flux. The presence of viscous dissipation is also considered at the plate under the influence of uniform transverse magnetic field. The flow is governed by a coupled nonlinear system of partial differential equations which are solved numerically by using finite difference method. The effects of various physical parameters on the flow quantities viz. velocity, temperature, concentration, Skin friction, Nusselt number and Sherwood number are studied numerically. The results are discussed with the help of graphs. We observed that the velocity decreases with an increase in magnetic field parameter, Schmidt number, and Prandtl number while it increases with an increase in Grashof number, modified Grashof number, visco-elastic parameter and Soret number. Temperature increases with an increase in radiation absorption parameter, Eckert number and visco-elastic parameter while it decreases with increasing values of radiation parameter, Prandtl number and heat absorption parameter. Concentration increases with increase in Soret number while it decreases with an increase in Schmidt number and chemical reaction parameter