Analytical and numerical investigation of heat and mass transfer effects on magnetohydrodynamic natural convective flow past a vertical porous plate

Abstract

The aim of this investigation is to study the effect of hall current on an unsteady natural convective flow of a viscous, incompressible, electrically conducting optically thick radiating fluid past a vertical porous plate in the presence of a uniform transverse magnetic field. The Rosseland diffusion approximation is used to describe the radiative heat flux in the energy equation. Analytical and numerical solutions of the coupled governing partial differential equations for the fluid velocity, fluid temperature and fluid concentration profiles are obtained by perturbation and finite element techniques respectively. The effects of the various dimensionless engineering parameters viz., Grashof number for heat and mass transfer, Magnetic field parameter, Prandtl number, Schmidt number, Thermal radiation parameter and Hall parameter entering into the problem on the primary and secondary velocities, temperature and concentration profiles throughout the boundary layer are investigated through graphs. The expressions of skin-friction, Nusselt number and Sherwood number are derived and represented through tabular form. The results reveal that the flow field and the temperature distribution are greatly influenced by thermal radiation parameter. Furthermore, the limiting cases are obtained and are found to be in good agreement with the previously published results.

Keywords

• heat and mass transfer
• natural convection
• hall current
• porous medium
• finite element method
• perturbation technique