MHD boundary‐layer flow over a stretching surface with internal heat generation or absorption

This article is concerned with the steady laminar magnetohydrodynamic boundary‐layer flow past a stretching surface with uniform free stream and internal heat generation or absorption in an electrically conducting fluid. A constant magnetic field is applied in the transverse direction. A uniform free stream of constant velocity and temperature is passed over the sheet. The effects of free convection and internal heat generation or absorption are also considered. The governing boundary layer and temperature equations for this problem are first transformed into a system of ordinary differential equations using similarity variables, and then solved by a new analytical method and numerical method, by using a fourth‐order Runge–Kutta and shooting method. Velocity and temperature profiles are shown graphically. It is shown that the differential transform method solutions are only valid for small values of independent variables but the results obtained by the DTM‐Padé are valid for the entire solution domain with high accuracy. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heat Trans Asian Res; Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/htj). DOI 10.1002/htj.21054