Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 June 2015
An investigation is carried out on mixed convection boundary layer flow of an incompressible and electrically conducting viscoelastic fluid over a linearly stretching surface in which the heat transfer includes the effects of viscous dissipation, elastic deformation, thermal radiation, and non-uniform heat source/sink for two general types of non-isothermal boundary conditions. The governing partial differential equations for the fluid flow and temperature are reduced to a nonlinear system of ordinary differential equations which are solved analytically using the homotopy analysis method (HAM). Graphical and numerical demonstrations of the convergence of the HAM solutions are provided, and the effects of various parameters on the skin friction coefficient and wall heat transfer are tabulated. In addition it is demonstrated that previously reported solutions of the thermal energy equation given in [1] do not converge at the boundary, and therefore, the boundary derivatives reported are not correct.