Analysis of heat and mass transfer in MHD laminar fluid flow between parallel plates of different permeability

Abstract

This study investigates the heat and mass transfer characteristics of a magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) Newtonian fluid flowing between two parallel plates of different permeabilities. The equations governing fluid flow are transformed from non-linear partial differential equations into non-linear ordinary differential equations by employing similarity transformations. Furthermore, an approximate analytic solution obtained by adopting the homotopy perturbation method is compared with the numerical solution obtained using the classical finite difference method. The current study mainly aims to analyse the effects of various physical parameters on the velocity fields, temperature profiles, concentration distribution curves, and numerical values of skin friction, heat and mass transfer rates. It was observed that the Reynolds number, Nusselt number, and Brownian motion constant suppressed the mass transfer rate at the lower plate, whereas it was enhanced at the upper plate. Furthermore, the concentration of the fluid was enhanced by the Prandtl number, Nusselt number, magnetic number, and chemical reaction parameters in both cases. It is also noted that the rate of mass transfer increases with increasing Prandtl number, Schmidt number, and chemical reaction parameter at the bottom plate, whereas it decreases at the upper plate. This type of modelled phenomenon has wide applications in metallurgy, including liquid purification.

Keywords

• MHD
• similarity transformations
• mass transfer
• different permeability
• homotopy perturbation method
• finite difference method