Abstract
This paper presents an analysis and a semi-analytical study of the boundary value problem resulting from a self-similar transformation of the partial differential equations governing the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) viscous flow due to a shrinking sheet with suction. Existence of a solution is shown using the fixed point argument and the boundary value problem is solved. Galerkin-Legendre spectral method with domain truncation is used to obtain approximate analytical solutions. The approximate solutions computed confirm the theoretical analysis. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.