Cattaneo–Friedrich and Crank–Nicolson analysis of upper-convected Maxwell fluid along a vertical plate

The concept of fractional derivative is used to solve a variety of viscoelastic fluid problems. However, researchers mostly overlooked the consequences of nonlinear convection in the fractional viscoelastic fluid models and were concerned only with situations where the governing equations are linear. Most importantly, the nonlinear fluid models, whether classical or fractional, are solved for steady-state conditions. To overcome these limitations, this research presents unsteady flow and heat transfer of nonlinear fractional upper-convected Maxwell (UCM) viscoelastic fluid along a vertical plate. The governing equations of the fractional Maxwell fluid are developed by introducing Friedrich shear stress and Cattaneo heat flux models to the classical UCM fluid model. An additional feature to the invention of the constructed fractional model is the consequence of an external magnetic field. Moreover, the considered model comprises nonlinear, coupled, fractional partial differential equations. Therefore, a numerical scheme is developed with the aid of the L1-approximation of Caputo derivative and the Crank–Nicolson method. The effects of different regulating parameters on fluid features have been thoroughly investigated. The obtained results are exhibited graphically and discussed in detail. It is observed that the skin friction increases for the velocity relaxation time parameter, but an opposite behavior is observed against the velocity fractional derivative parameter. Moreover, a significant enhancement is noticed in the Nusselt number for increasing estimates of the Prandtl number.