Radiative Heat Transfer in Falkner’s-Skan Flow of a Carreau Fluid Over a Wedge with Non-Uniform Heat Source/Sink

Abstract

This study focuses on radiative heat transfer in Falkner-Skan flow of a Carreau fluid influenced by a wedge surface in the presence of non-uniform heat source/sink. The governing nonlinear partial differential equations (PDE’s) are reduced to a system of nonlinear ordinary differential equations (ODE’s) using similarity transformations. These ODE’s are numerically solved using the bvp5c MATLAB package, yielding detailed insights into the velocity and temperature distributions. The analysis highlights the effects of critical parameters, including the Carreau fluid properties, radiation, wedge angle, and non-uniform heat source/sink, on the flow and thermal behaviour. A comparison benchmark is presented to validate the numerical solutions. This work offers significant contributions to the understanding of heat transfer in non-Newtonian fluid flows, with practical applications in engineering and industrial sectors.