Group method analysis of mixed convection boundary-layer flow of a micropolar fluid near a stagnation point on a horizontal cylinder

The transformation group theoretic approach is applied to the system of equations governing the unsteady mixed convection boundary-layer flow of a micropolar fluid near a stagnation point on a horizontal cylinder. The application of a two-parameter group reduces the number of independent variables by two, and consequently the system of governing partial differential equations with boundary conditions reduces to a system of ordinary differential equations with appropriate boundary conditions. The possible forms of surface-temperature Tw, potential velocity U and sin [inline-graphic not available: see fulltext] with position and time are derived in steady and unsteady cases. New formulae of dimensionless temperature are presented using the group method analysis. Hiemenz and Falkner-Skan equations are obtained as special cases. The new similarity representations and similarity transformations in steady/unsteady states are obtained. The family of ordinary differential equations has been solved numerically using a fourth-order Runge-Kutta algorithm with the shooting technique. The effect of varying parameters governing the problem is studied.