A theoretical study of the effect of a non-uniform heat source on heat transfer in a viscoelastic liquid flow over a stretching sheet

A theoretical study of heat transfer in a visco-elastic liquid flow due to a stretching sheet in the presence of non-uniform heat generation / absorption is investigated. The stretching of the sheet is assumed to be proportional to the perpendicular distance from the slit. Two different temperature conditions are studied, viz., (i) the sheet with the prescribed surface temperature (PST) and (ii) the sheet with the prescribed wall heat flux (PHF). The non-linear boundary layer equations for momentum are converted into non-linear ordinary differential equations by means of a similarity transformation and the same is solved exactly. The heat transport equation with variable coefficients is transformed into a confluent hypergeometric differential equation and solved analytically. The effect of various parameters on the temperature distribution is presented graphically. Present results are compared with the existing theoretical data and found in good agreement with these results. The results have technological applications in liquid based systems involving stretchable materials.