Hydromagnetic flow and heat transfer of an upper-convected Maxwell fluid in a parallel plate channel with stretching walls

A study of an upper-convected Maxwell (UCM) fluid flow and heat transfer in a parallel plate channel with stretching walls in the presence of an applied magnetic field is carried out. The governing non-linear coupled equations with appropriate boundary conditions are initially cast into dimensionless form by similarity transformations. Then the resulting non-dimensional equations are solved analytically by Optimal Homotopy Analysis Method (HAM). The effects of the pertinent parameters on the velocity and temperature fields are analyzed graphically. The analysis reveals that the effect of the magnetic field is to decrease the velocity normal to the wall, but the opposite effect is observed for the temperature field. The present study is relevant to the haemodynamic flow of blood in the cardiovascular system in the presence of uniform magnetic field.