Unsteady stagnation-point flow and heat transfer of fractional Maxwell fluid towards a time dependent stretching plate with generalized Fourier’s law

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to investigate the unsteady stagnation-point flow and heat transfer of fractional Maxwell fluid towards a time power-law-dependent stretching plate. Based on the characteristics of pressure in the boundary layer, the momentum equation with the fractional Maxwell model is firstly formulated to analyze unsteady stagnation-point flow. Furthermore, generalized Fourier’s law is considered in the energy equation and boundary condition of convective heat transfer.Design/methodology/approachThe nonlinear fractional differential equations are solved by the newly developed finite difference scheme combined with L1-algorithm, whose convergence is verified by constructing a numerical example.FindingsSome interesting results can be revealed. The larger fractional derivative parameter of velocity promotes the flow, while the smaller fractional derivative parameter of temperature accelerates the heat transfer. The temperature boundary layer is thicker than the velocity boundary layer, and the velocity enlarges as the stagnation parameter raises. This is because when Prandtl number < 1, the capacity of heat diffusion is greater than that of momentum diffusion. It is to be observed that all the temperature profiles first enhance a little and then reduce rapidly, which indicates the thermal retardation of Maxwell fluid.Originality/valueThe unsteady stagnation-point flow model of Maxwell fluid is extended from integral derivative to fractional derivative, which has more flexibility to describe viscoelastic fluid’s complex dynamic process and provide a theoretical basis for industrial processing.