COMBINED EFFECTS OF RADIATION AND CHEMICAL REACTION ON HEAT AND MASS TRANSFER BY MHD STAGNATION-POINT FLOW OF A MICROPOLAR FLUID TOWARDS A STRETCHING SURFACE

An analysis is performed to study the thermaldiffusion and diffusion-thermo effects on heat and mass transfer by magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) mixed convection stagnation point flow of a micropolar fluid towards a stretching surface in the presence of magnetic field, thermal radiation and homogenous chemical reaction effects. The Rosseland diffusion approximation is used to describe the radiative heat flux in the energy equation. The resulting governing partial differential equations are transformed into a set of non-linear ordinary differential equations, which are solved using an implicit finite difference method with quasi-linearization technique. Various comparisons with previously published work are performed and the results are found to be in excellent agreement. Representative results for the velocity, microrotation, temperature and concentration profiles as well as the local skin-friction coefficient, local Nusselt and Sherwood numbers is presented graphically for various parametric conditions and discussed. It is found that the skin friction decreases with increasing chemical reaction, magnetic and material parameters. Also, the radiation parameter, Soret and Dufour effects tend to increase friction.