Eur. Phys. J. Plus (2017) 132: 7
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/i2017-11287-1

Regular Article

Effect of frictional heating on radiative ferrofluid flow over a slendering stretching sheet with aligned magnetic field

¹ Department of Mathematics, S V University, 517502, Tirupati, India
² Department of Mathematics, VIT University, 632014, Vellore, India

^* e-mail: vsuguna@svuniversity.ac.in

Received: 7 November 2016
Accepted: 5 December 2016
Published online: 12 January 2017

Abstract

The pivotal objective of this paper is to look into the flow of ferrofluids past a variable thickness surface with velocity slip. Magnetite (Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles are embedded to the regular fluid. The occurrence of frictional heating in the flow is also taken into account. So the flow equations will be coupled and nonlinear. These are remodelled into dimensionless form with the support of suitable transmutations. The solution of the transformed equations is determined with the support of an effective Runge-Kutta (RK)-based shooting technique. Ultimately, the effects of a few flow modulating quantities on fluid motion and heat transport were explored through plots which are procured using the MATLAB tool box. Owing to the engineering applications, we also calculated the friction factor and the heat transfer coefficient for the influencing parameters. The results are presented comparatively for both regular fluid (water) and water-based ferrofluid. This study enables us to deduce that inflation in the aligned angle or surface thickness reduces the fluid velocity. The radiation and dissipation parameters are capable of providing heat energy to the flow.