Unsteady hydromagnetic flow of a reactive variable viscosity third‐grade fluid in a channel with convective cooling

This paper examines the combined effects of a transverse magnetic field and variable viscosity on unsteady flow of a reactive third‐grade electrically conducting fluid and heat transfer in a channel with convective cooling at the surface. It is assumed that the fluid has small electrical conductivity and the electromagnetic force produced is very small. The coupled nonlinear partial differential equations governing the problem are derived and solved numerically using a semi‐implicit finite‐difference scheme. Both numerical and graphical results are presented and physical aspects of the problem are discussed with respect to various parameters embedded in the system. It is in general noted that those parameters that increase/decrase one flow quantity (velocity or temperature) also lead to the increase/decrease respectively of the other quantity. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.