Investigation of thermal radiation on traditional Jeffery-Hamel flow to stretchable convergent/divergent channels

In the present paper, the influence of thermal radiation on the classical Jeffery-Hamel flow due to a point source or sink in convergent/divergent channels is investigated for the case where the stationary channel walls are permitted to stretch or shrink. Similarity transformations are used to convert the nonlinear boundary layer equations for momentum and thermal energy are reduced to a system of nonlinear ordinary differential equations containing the Prandtl number, angle of convergent/divergent, thermal radiation and Reynolds number with appropriate boundary conditions. These equations are solved analytically by applying integral methods (Collocation method and Least-Square method). Results show that the heat features are considerably altered by the application of the thermal radiation of the walls. The effects of various physical parameters on the dimensionless velocity and temperature profiles are presented graphically. In addition, numerical results for the local skin friction coefficient and the heat transfer rate are discussed. It is found that the temperature profiles increase with an increase in the thermal radiation parameter. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.