Abstract
This paper numerically investigates the viscous dissipation effect on the boundary layer flow of an electrically-conducting viscoelastic fluid (Walter's B liquid) past a nonlinear stretching sheet. The partial differential equations governing the flow problem are transformed into ordinary differential equations through similarity variables. The transformed equations are then solved using the Keller box method. A careful evaluation of the influence of the pertinent parameters on the velocity field and temperature distributions through various plots is done for the prescribed surface temperature (PST) and prescribed heat flux (PHF) boundary conditions. The computed coefficient of skin friction, the rate of heat transfer (Nusselt number), and the temperature at the wall are also presented in tabular form. It is revealed from this table that the magnitude of the heat transfer is reduced with the increase in the Eckert number Ec, viscoelastic parameter K, and magnetic parameter M for the PST case by about 12%, 20%, and 29%, respectively. Similarly, the temperature at the wall for the PHF case also decreases with the increase in Ec and M by about 8% and 24%, respectively. It is obvious that the application of the PST condition excels at keeping the viscoelastic fluid warmer than the PHF condition. This implies that applying the PHF condition is better for cooling the sheet faster. The temperature at the wall is unchanged with the changes in the pertinent parameters in the PST case, and it is ascertained that the present results are in close agreement with the previous published results.