Effect of Thermal Radiation and Internal Heat Generation on Natural Convection from a Vertical Flat Plate in Porous Media Considering Soret/Dufour Effects

Abstract

The effect of thermal radiation and internal heat generation on natural convection from a vertical flat plate maintained with uniform wall temperature and concentration (UWT/UWC) in a saturated porous medium considering Soret/Dufour effects is numerically analyzed. The similarity solution is obtained by assuming the internal heat generation is in exponential decaying form. The Rosseland diffusion approximation is employed to describe the radiative heat flux. Similar governing equations are solved by Keller box method. Comparisons showed excellent agreement with the numerical data in previous works. Numerical data for the dimensionless temperature profile, the dimensionless concentration profile, the local Nusselt number, and the local Sherwood number are presented graphically for the buoyancy ratio N, the Lewis number Le, the Soret parameter S, the Dufour parameter D, the thermal radiation parameter R_d and the internal heat generation coefficient A*. The effect of all these parameters on the convective transport has been analyzed, and the variation of heat and mass transfer coefficients with the above parameters is presented through computer generated graphs. Increasing N and R_d will enhance the local Nusselt number as well as the local Sherwood number. An increase of D decreases (increases) the local Nusselt (Sherwood) number. For fixed S, as the internal heat generation coefficient A^* increases will decrease (increase) the local Nusselt (Sherwood) number.