Incompressible laminar 2D steady thermal boundary layers with temperature-dependent kinematic viscosity and thermal diffusivity

We prove that the incompressible 2D steady thermal boundary layer equations with temperature-dependent kinematic viscosity ν and thermal diffusivity α is maximally symmetric provided the Prantl number Pr=ν/α is constant and or ν=K₂(AT+B)^K₁ if we neglect energy dissipation and if we take into account dissipation. This result corroborates assumptions often made in applications. When we disregard dissipation, the symmetry Lie algebra assumes the forms L^r⊕L^∞, where L^∞ is an infinite-dimensional Lie algebra and L^r is an r-dimensional Lie algebra with r∈{3,4,5,6}. If we include dissipation, r∈{2,3}. We notice that dissipation has a symmetry breaking effect.We also show how the symmetries can be employed for the calculation of invariant solutions.