The objective of this investigation is to analyze the effect of unsteadiness on the mixed convection boundary layer flow of micropolar fluid over a permeable shrinking sheet in the presence of viscous dissipation. At the sheet a variable distribution of suction is assumed. The unsteadiness in the flow and temperature fields is caused by the time dependence of the shrinking velocity and surface temperature. With the aid of similarity transformations, the governing partial differential equations are transformed into a set of nonlinear ordinary differential equations, which are solved numerically, using variational finite element method. The influence of important physical parameters, namely, suction parameter, unsteadiness parameter, buoyancy parameter and Eckert number on the velocity, microrotation, and temperature functions is investigated and analyzed with the help of their graphical representations. Additionally skin friction and the rate of heat transfer have also been computed. Under special conditions, an exact solution for the flow velocity is compared with the numerical results obtained by finite element method. An excellent agreement is observed for the two sets of solutions. Furthermore, to verify the convergence of numerical results, calculations are conducted with increasing number of elements.
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