On the performance of heat absorption/generation and thermal stratification in mixed convective flow of an Oldroyd-B fluid

This investigation explores the thermally stratified stretchable flow of an Oldroyd-B material bounded by a linear stretched surface. Heat transfer characteristics are addressed through thermal stratification and heat generation/absorption. Formulation is arranged for mixed convection. Application of suitable transformations provides ordinary differential systems through partial differential systems. The homotopy concept is adopted for the solution of nonlinear differential systems. The influence of several arising variables on velocity and temperature is addressed. Besides this, the rate of heat transfer is calculated and presented in tabular form. It is noticed that velocity and Nusselt number increase when the thermal buoyancy parameter is enhanced. Moreover, temperature is found to decrease for larger values of Prandtl number and heat absorption parameter. Comparative analysis for limiting study is performed and excellent agreement is found. (C) 2017 Korean Nuclear Society, Published by Elsevier Korea LLC.