Effect of Melting and Thermo-Diffusion on Natural Convection Heat Mass Transfer in a Non-Newtonian Fluid Saturated Non-Darcy Porous Medium

Abstract

This paper investigates the influence of melting and thermo-diffusion effect on natural convection heat and mass transfer from vertical flat plate in a non-Newtonian fluid saturated non-Darcy porous medium. The wall and the ambient medium are maintained at constant but different levels of temperature and concentration such that the heat and mass transfer occurs from the wall to the medium. The Ostwald-de Waele power law model is used to characterize the non-Newtonian fluid behavior. A similarity solution for the transformed governing equations is obtained, computation is carried out for various values of the non-dimensional physical parameters. The variation in velocity, temperature, concentration, heat and mass transfer coefficients with the power law index, inertia parameter, melting parameter, thermo- diffusion parameter, buoyancy ratio and Lewis number is discussed for a wide range of values of these parameters.