MHD stagnation point flow of a micropolar fluid towards a heated surface

The problem of two dimensional stagnation point flow of an electrically conducting micropolar fluid impinging normally on a heated surface in the presence of a uniform transverse magnetic field is analyzed. The governing continuity, momentum, angular momentum, and heat equations together with the associated boundary conditions are reduced to dimensionless form using suitable similarity transformations. The reduced self similar non-linear equations are then solved numerically by an algorithm based on the finite difference discretization. The results are further refined by Richardson’s extrapolation. The effects of the magnetic parameter, the micropolar parameters, and the Prandtl number on the flow and temperature fields are predicted in tabular and graphical forms to show the important features of the solution. The study shows that the velocity and thermal boundary layers become thinner as the magnetic parameter is increased. The micropolar fluids display more reduction in shear stress as well as heat transfer rate than that exhibited by Newtonian fluids, which is beneficial in the flow and thermal control of polymeric processing.