Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present a novel model on the unsteady MHD flow of heat transfer in carbon nanotubes with variable viscosity over a shrinking surface. Design/methodology/approach The temperature-dependent viscosity makes the proposed model non-linear and coupled. Consequently, the resulting non-linear partial differential equations are first reformed into set of ordinary differential equations through appropriate transformations and boundary layer approximation and are then solved numerically by the Keller box method. Findings Graphical and numerical results are executed keeping temperature-dependent viscosity of nanofluid. It is noted that, for diverse critical points, it is found that at one side of these critical values, multiple solutions exist; on the other side, no solution exists. A comparison is also computed for the special case of existing study. The temperature and pressure profiles are also plotted for various effective parameters. Originality/value The work is original.