Element free Galerkin modeling of radiative hydromagnetic micropolar flow saturated Darcy medium with heat transfer over a stretching sheet with Joule heating

Abstract

In this paper, the effect of thermal radiation on heat transfer in the steady, incompressible hydromagnetic flow of an electrically conducting, micropolar fluid through a Darcian porous medium adjacent to a stretching sheet under a uniform transverse magnetic field has been examined. The partial differential conservation equations governing the flow regime have been nondimensionalized using appropriate similarity transformations and the resulting ordinary differential equations have been solved numerically by using the element‐free Galerkin method. The influence of dimensional less flow parameters on the velocity, microrotation, and temperature distribution have been studied graphically. Excellent correlation of selected results has been achieved with the finite element method. Dimensionless temperatures have been shown to be considerably increased with higher thermal radiation contribution. The flow is also shown to be decelerated in the boundary layer with increasing magnetic field, whereas microrotation of the micro‐elements is amplified with increasing magnetic field and temperatures are also elevated. Increasing porosity of the regime accelerates the flow and also boosts microrotation on the surface of sheet but depresses temperatures in the regime. The mathematical model has important applications in polymeric sheet processing at high temperatures, magnetic materials processing, hydromagnetic control of conducting polymeric sheets, and so on. © 2013 Curtin University of Technology and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.