Abstract
In this article, we studied the effects of variable viscosity and thermal conductivity on an unsteady two-dimensional laminar flow of a viscous incompressible conducting fluid past a semi-infinite vertical porous moving plate taking into account the effect of a magnetic field in the presence of variable suction. The fluid viscosity is assumed to vary as an inverse linear function of temperature but the thermal conductivity is assumed to vary as a linear function of temperature. It is assumed that the porous plate moves with a constant velocity in the direction of fluid flow, and the free stream velocity follows the exponentially increasing small perturbation law. The governing equations for the flow are transformed into a system of nonlinear ordinary differential equations by perturbation technique and are solved numerically by using the shooting method. The effects of the various parameters on the velocity and temperature profiles as well as the surface skin-friction coefficient are presented graphically. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.