Effects of thermal radiation on micropolar fluid flow and heat transfer over a porous shrinking sheet

The effects of thermal radiation on the flow of micropolar fluid and heat transfer past a porous shrinking sheet is investigated. The self-similar ODEs are obtained using similarity transformations from the governing PDEs and are then solved numerically by very efficient shooting method. The analysis reveals that for the steady flow of micropolar fluid, the wall mass suction needs to be increased. Dual solutions of velocity and temperature are obtained for several values of the each parameter involved. For increasing values of the material parameter K, the velocity decreases for first solution, whereas, for second solution it increases. Due to increase of thermal radiation, the temperature and thermal boundary layer thickness reduce in both solutions and also the heat transfer from the sheet enhances with thermal radiation. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.