Radiative heat transfer enhancement in MHD porous channel flow of an Oldroyd-B fluid under generalized boundary conditions

Abstract

Abstract This study explains the transient free convection phenomenon in a vertical porous channel subject to nonlinear thermal radiation. The infinite vertical channel encloses magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) flow of an Oldroyd-B fluid. The left channel wall possesses time-dependent velocity u 0 g ( t ˜ ) , while the right wall exhibits no motion. The momentum and temperature field equations are developed on the bases of momentum conservation law and Fourier’s principle of heat transfer. Laplace transformation technique and Durbin’s numerical inversion method are jointly incorporated to compute the solutions of the formulated problem. The influences of flow and material parameters on heat transfer and fluid velocity are graphically scrutinized with physical aspects. The numerical computations for skin friction and temperature gradient are tabularized to comprehensively examine the wall shear stress and heat transfer rate. Finally, velocity fields for Maxwell fluid, second grade fluid, and viscous fluid are traced out as limiting cases and their comparison is drawn with the velocity field of an Oldroyd-B fluid. Besides this, some newly published results are also deduced from the acquired solutions. It is observed that increasing the magnitude of radiation parameter Rd rapidly enhances the rate of heat transfer at the right channel wall while an inverse behavior of Nusselt number is witnessed at the left channel wall. The Maxwell fluid and second grade fluid indicate the swiftest and slowest channel flow rates respectively. The shear stress specifies dual nature for relaxation and retardation parameters subject to static and moving wall. Additionally, it is found that the flow of an Oldroyd-B fluid is retarded by a magnetic field.