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Available online at www.rfbss.org
International Journal for Basic Sciences and Social Sciences (IJBSS), 2(1), 2013, 99-106
Published by Research Foundation for Basic Sciences and Social Sciences (RFBSS), India
ISSN: 2319-2968

MICROPOLAR FLUID FLOW NEAR THE STAGNATION ON A
VERTICAL PLATE WITH PRESCRIBED WALL HEAT FLUX IN
PRESENCE OF MAGNETIC FIELD

Gitima Patowary
Research Scholar, Department of Mathematics, Singhania University, Rajasthan, India
E-mail: gitimapatowary@gmail.com
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International Journal for Basic Sciences and Social Sciences (IJBSS). All rights reserved.
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1. Introduction
Eringen (1966, 1972) first introduced and formulated the theory of micropolar fluid and derived the constitutive laws
of fluid with micro-structure has been a field of very active research for the last decades. This theory is capable to
explain the complex fluids behaviour such as liquid crystals, polymeric suspensions, animal blood etc. by taking into
account the effect arising from local structure and micro-motions of the fluid elements. An extensive review of
micropolar fluids and their applications has been done by Ariman et al. (1973).
Free or mixed convection flow of a micropolar fluid towards a vertical surface have been studied by many researchers.
Bhargava et al. (2003) was the first who have analyzed the effect of temperature dependent heat sources on the fully
developed free convection electrically conducting micropolar fluid between two parallel porous vertical plates in a
strong magnetic field by solving the governing differential equations using the quasi linearization method. Jena and
Mathur (1984) considered the laminar mixed convection boundary layer flow of a micropolar fluid from an isothermal
vertical flat plate. Gorla (1995) studied the unsteady laminar mixed convection boundary layer flow of a micropolar
fluid over a vertical flat plate by assuming the free stream velocity undergoes arbitrary variation with time. Lok et al.
(2006) studied the unsteady mixed convection boundary layer flow of a micropolar fluid near the stagnation point flow
towards a horizontal permeable plate immersed in a micropolar fluid. They obtained the solutions using homotopy
analysis method and found that their solutions are in favourable agreement with the numerical solutions previously
reported by Attia (2006). Azizah et al. (2010) studied considering a steady mixed convection flow of micropolar fluid
near the stagnation point on a vertical plate with prescribed surface heat flux. The similar problem in a viscous fluid
ABSTRACT
A numerical model to study the influence of the material parameter, buoyancy parameter
and Prandtl number on the skin friction coefficient and the heat transfer rate at the
surface on a steady, two dimensional flow of an incompressible micropolar fluid near the
stagnation point on a vertical plate with prescribed surface heat flux in presence of a
magnetic field has been developed. The free stream velocity and the surface heat flux are
assumed to be proportional to the distance from the stagnation point. Similarly
transformation is employed to transform the governing partial differential equations to a
set of ordinary differential equations. The effects of the material parameter, buoyancy
parameter and Prandtl number on the skin friction coefficient and the heat transfer rate
at the surface are discussed and the corresponding velocity, temperature and
microrotation profiles are shown graphically. Both assisting and opposing flows are
considered and it is found that dual solutions exist for both cases.

KEYWORDS
Micropolar fluid
Vertical plate
Mixed convection
Stagnation point flow
Magnetic parameter
Boundary layer
Fluid mechanics
Shooting method
ARTICLE INFO
Received:
Oct 2, 2012
Accepted:
Nov 13, 2012
Gitima Patowary, IJBSS, 2(1), 2013, 99-106
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100
was studied by Ramachandran et al. (1988) by considering both cases of an arbitrary surface temperature and arbitrary
surface heat flux. They found that dual solutions exist for certain range of the buoyancy parameter, for opposing flow
case only. Devi et al. (1991) extended this problem to the unsteady case, while Lok et al (2005) investigated the case
when the plate immersed in a micropolar fluid. They also fund that dual solution exist for the opposing flow only.
Azizah et al. (2010) have showed that dual solutions also exist for the prescribed surface heat flux case, for both
assisting and opposing flows.
In our earlier work (2011) motivated by the above investigations we considered a steady mixed convection flow of a
micropolar fluid near the stagnation point on a vertical plate with prescribed heat flux in presence of steady magnetic
field and studied to show that dual solutions also exist for the prescribed surface heat flux case, for both assisting and
opposing flows in presence of steady magnetic field. There we used Runge-Kutta method to solve the governing
equations. In this paper we are going to extend our earlier work by using Shooting method to solve the governing
equations and to compare our earlier work. Here the governing equations reduced to similarity boundary layer
equations using suitable transformations and then solve using Shooting method. Numerical results are presented in
terms of material parameter K, buoyancy parameter , Prandtl number Pr and Magnetic parameter R. The effect of
variation in K , , Pr , R are presented graphically.

2. Mathematical Formulation
A steady, two dimensional flow of an incompressible electrically conducting micropolar fluid near the stagnation point
on a vertical flat plat place in the plane 0 = y of a Cartesian system of coordinates Oxy in presence of a magnetic
field
0
B applied in the normal direction to the walls is considered. The fluid occupies the half plane 0 > y . It is
assumed that the free stream velocity ) (x U and the surface heat flux ) (x q
w
are proportional to the distance x from
the stagnation point, i.e., ax x U = ) ( and bx x q
w
= ) ( , where a and b are the constants. Under these assumptions,
the simplified governing equation equations are given by
Equation of continuity is
0 =
c
' c
+
c
' c
y
v
x
u
(1)
Equation of momentum is
u B T T g
y
N
y
u
dx
U d
U
y
u
v
x
u
u ' +
c
c
+
c
' c
|
|
.
|

\
| +
+
'
' =
c
' c
' +
c
' c
'
2
0
2
2
) ( o |

k
o
(2)
Equation of angular momentum is
|
|
.
|

\
|
c
' c
+
c
c
=
|
|
.
|

\
|
c
c
' +
c
c
'
y
u
N
y
N
y
N
v
x
N
u j 2
2
2
k (3)
Equation of energy is

2
2
y
T
y
T
v
x
T
u
c
c
=
c
c
' +
c
c
' o (4)
The appropriate physical the boundary conditions of equations are

k
w
q
y
T
y
u
n N v u =
c
c
c
' c
= = ' = ' , , 0 , 0 at 0 = y

o
T T N x U u ' ' , 0 ), ( as o y (5)
where u' and v' are the components of velocity in x and y direction respectively, is the dynamic viscosity, k is
the vortex viscosity, is the fluid density, is the spin gradient viscosity, o is the thermal diffusivity, | is the
Gitima Patowary, IJBSS, 2(1), 2013, 99-106
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101
thermal expansion coefficient, g acceleration due to gravity, T is the fluid temperature, j is the micro inertia
density, N is the micro rotation vector,
0
B is the external magnetic field and
w
q is the surface heat flux. It should
be noted that n is a constant such that 1 0 < < n (Azizah et al., 2010). The case n = 0 is called strong concentration
by Guram and Smith (1980), which indicates N=0 near the wall, represents concentrated particle flows in which the
microelements close to the wall surface are unable to rotate (Jena and Mathur, 1981). The case n=1/2 indicates the
vanishing of anti symmetric part of the stress tensor and denotes weak concentrations (Ahmadi, 1976). The case n=1,
as suggested by Peddieson (1972), is used for the modeling of turbulent boundary layer flows. The case n=1/2 for
weak concentration (Azuzah et al., 2010). Here we follow by assuming j K j ) 2 / 1 ( ) 2 / ( + = + = k (Azuzah et al.,
2010). This assumption is invoked to allow the field of equations predicts the correct behaviour in the limiting case
when the microstructure effects become negligible and the total spin N reduces to the angular velocity (Ahmadi, 1976,
Yucel, 1989).
The governing equations subject to the boundary conditions can be expressed in a simpler form by introducing the
following transformations:

x
v
y
u
c
c
= '
c
c
= '

, (6)

2 / 1
2 / 1
3
2
1
2
1
) (
) ( ), ( ), ( ) ( , |
.
|

\
|
'

=
|
|
.
|

\
|
'
= ' = |
.
|

\
|
'
=
v
a
q
T T k
xg
v
a
N xf v a y
v
a
w
o
q u q q q (7)
Where k is the thermal conductivity, is the stream function.
The transformed ordinary differential equations are:
0 1 ) 1 (
2
= + ' + ' ' + ' ' + ' ' ' + u h K f R f f f f K (8)
0 ) 2 (
2
1 = ' ' + ' ' + ' '
|
.
|

\
|
+ f g K g f g f g
K
(9)
0
1
= ' ' + ' ' u u u f f
P
r
(10)
subject to the boundary conditions (5) which become
1 ) 0 ( ), 0 ( ) 0 ( , 0 ) 0 ( , 0 ) 0 ( = ' ' ' = = ' = u f n g f f
0 ) ( , 0 ) ( , 1 ) ( ' q u q q g f as o q (11)
where we have taken a v j / ' = as a reference length (Nazar et al 2004). Here prime denote differentiation with respect
to q , k / = K is the material parameter, o / v P
r
' = is Prandtl number and
2 / 5
Re /
x x
Gr = ,
a
B
R

o
2
0 0
= is the
buoyancy parameter. Further ) /(
2 4
kv x q g Gr
w x
| = is the local Grashof number and v Ux
x
/ Re = is the local
Reynolds number. Here is a constant with 0 < and 0 > correspond to the opposing and assisting flows
respectively, while 0 = is for pure forced convection flow. When 0 = K (viscous fluid), the present problem reduces
to those of Ramachandran et al (1988) and when 0
0
= B , the present problem reduces to those of Azizah et al. (2010).
The physical quantities of interest are the skin friction coefficient
f
C and the local Nusselt number
x
Nu , which are
defined as
) (
,
2
2
o
t
T T k
xq
Nu
U
C
w
w
x
w
f

= = (12)
Where the wall shear stress
w
t and the wall heat flux
w
g are given by
Gitima Patowary, IJBSS, 2(1), 2013, 99-106
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102
( )
0 0
,
= =
|
|
.
|

\
|
c
c
=
(

+
c
c
+ =
y
w
y
w
y
T
k q kN
y
u
k t (13)
Using (6), we obtain
) 0 ( / 1 Re / ), 0 ( ] ) 1 ( 1 [ Re
2
1
2 / 1 2 / 1
u = ' ' + =
x x x
Nu f K n C
f
(14)

3. Results and Discussion
In this paper, we have attempted to develop a mathematical analysis for investigating a steady, two dimensional flow
of an incompressible micropolar fluid near the stagnation point on a vertical plate with prescribed surface heat flux in
presence of magnetic field as our earlier paper (2011). The systems of non linear equations (8-10) subject to the
boundary conditions (11) have been solved numerically by applying Shooting techniques for some values of the
governing parameters, namely the material parameter K, buoyancy parameter , Prandtl number Pr and Magnetic
parameter R, while we consider n=1/2 throughout the paper, which represents weak concentration of fluids particles at
the surface. Same results are found here as our earlier work (2011). The dual solutions were obtained by setting two
different values of boundary layer thickness
o
q which satisfies the boundary condition (11) and produce two different
velocity, temperature and microrotation profiles as shown in Figs 1-3. The variations of the skin friction coefficient
) 0 ( f ' ' and the surface temperature ) 0 ( u with the mixed convection or buoyancy parameter for different values of
Pr and K=1 are presented in Figs. 4 and 5, respectively. These figures show that dual solutions exist for both assisting
) 0 ( > and opposing ) 0 ( < flows, For the assisting flows, the solution exists for all values of , while for the
opposing flow it exists up to a critical value, say
c
. Between the two solutions as presented in Figs. 4 and 5, we
expect that the upper branch solution is stable and most physically relevance, while the lower branch solution is not,
since it is the only solution for the forced convection case ) 0 ( = .
4. Conclusion
In the present work we have studied numerically the problem of mixed convection flow towards a vertical plate with a
prescribed surface heat flux immersed in an incompressible micropolar fluid in presence of a magnetic field. The
governing partial differential equations were transformed into ordinary differential equations using similarity
transformation, before being solved numerically by shooting method. Here we discussed the effects of the material
parameter, buoyancy parameter, the Prandtl number, Magnetic parameter on the fluid flow and heat transfer
characteristics. We found that dual solutions exist for both assisting and opposing flows. The solutions for the assisting
flow ) 0 ( > could be obtained for all values of the buoyancy parameter , while for the opposing flow ) 0 ( < , the
solutions were obtained only in the range of ) 0 (< >
c
where
c
is the minimum value of for which the solution
exists. It is also found that micropolar fluids as well as fluids with larger Prandtl number increase the range of for
which the solution exists.


REFERENCES

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103
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-0.16
-0.14
-0.12
-0.1
-0.08
-0.06
-0.04
-0.02
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6
f
'
h

-0.16
-0.14
-0.12
-0.1
-0.08
-0.06
-0.04
-0.02
0
0.02
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6
h->

Fig. 1 Variation velocity profiels ) (q f ' against q for various values of K taking
Pr = 0.7, 1 = , R = 0.1
Fig. 2 Variation temperature profiles ) (q u against q for various values of K taking
Pr = 0.7, 1 = , R = 0.1
Gitima Patowary, IJBSS, 2(1), 2013, 99-106
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105


0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2
h->

0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6
h



Fig. 3 Variation of microrotation profiles ) (q g against q for various values of K taking
Pr = 0.7, 1 = , R = 0.1
Fig. 4 Variation velocity profiles ) (q f against q for various values of Pr taking
K = 1, 1 = , R = 0.1
Gitima Patowary, IJBSS, 2(1), 2013, 99-106
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106


0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6
h

Fig. 5 Variation temperature profiles ) (q u against q for various values of Pr taking
K = 1, 1 = , R = 0.1