Numerical study of MHD boundary layer flow of a Maxwell fluid past a stretching sheet in the presence of nanoparticles

In the present article, two dimensional boundary-layer flows and the heat transfer of a Maxwell fluid past a stretching sheet are studied numerically. The effects of magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) and elasticity on the flow are considered. Moreover, the effects of nanoparticles are also investigated. Similarity transformations are presented to convert the governing nonlinear partial differential equation into coupled ordinary differential equations. The reduced boundary layer equations of the Maxwell nanofluid model are solved numerically. The effects of the emerging parameters, namely, the magnetic parameter M, the elastic parameter K, the Prandtl parameter Pr, the Brownian motion Nb, the thermophoresis parameter Nt and the Lewis number Le on the temperature and the concentration profile are discussed. Interesting results are shown graphically. The skin friction coefficient, the dimensionless heat transfer rate and the concentration rate are also plotted against the flow control parameters. (C) 2013 Taiwan Institute of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.