Numerical study of unsteady hydromagnetic Generalized Couette flow of a reactive third-grade fluid with asymmetric convective cooling

Unsteady hydromagnetic Generalized Couette flow and heat transfer characteristics of a reactive variable viscosity incompressible electrically conducting third grade fluid in a channel with asymmetric convective cooling at the walls in the presence of uniform transverse magnetic field is studied. It is assumed that the chemical kinetics in the flow system is exothermic and the convective heat transfer at the channel surface with the surrounding environment follow the Newton's law of cooling. The coupled nonlinear partial differential equations governing the problem are derived and solved numerically using an unconditionally stable and convergent 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. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.