Unsteady MHD rear stagnation-point flow over off-centred deformable surfaces

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present both an analytical and a numerical analysis of the unsteady magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) rear stagnation-point flow over off-centred deformable surfaces.

Design/methodology/approach

The numerical MATLAB solver bvp4c suitable for routine boundary value problem is used for the set of ordinary differential equations reduced from the governing partial differential equations.

Findings

Multiple solutions are found for particular eigenvalues. The physical solution is computed by the help of a linear stability analysis. The authors have succeeded in discovering the second solutions, and it is suggested that these solutions are unstable and not physically realisable in practice. The current findings add to a growing body of literature on MHD stagnation-point flow problems. It is also found that the governing parameters have different effects on the flow characteristics.

Practical implications

Even though problems of steady MHD flows have been extensively studied for stagnation-point flows, limited findings can be found on the unsteady MHD rear stagnation-point flow over off-centred deformable surfaces.

Originality/value

The originality of this work is the application of a magnetic field on a time-dependent MHD rear stagnation-point flow over off-centred deformable surfaces.

Citation

Turkyilmazoglu, M., Naganthran, K. and Pop, I. (2017), "Unsteady MHD rear stagnation-point flow over off-centred deformable surfaces", International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, Vol. 27 No. 7, pp. 1554-1570. https://doi.org/10.1108/HFF-04-2016-0160