Ramp temperature and Dufour effects on transient MHD natural convection flow past an infinite vertical plate in a porous medium

Abstract

Analytical investigation of the unsteady natural convection flow along an infinite vertical plate embedded in a porous medium subjected to a ramped temperature boundary condition has been performed in the presence of magnetic field, thermal radiation, heat generation or absorption, chemical reaction and Dufour effect. The governing equations for momentum, energy and concentration have been solved using the Laplace transform technique. The closed-form exact solutions for the velocity, temperature and concentration fields as well as the skin-friction, Nusselt and Sherwood numbers are obtained without any restrictions. The influence of pertinent parameters on the fluid velocity, temperature, skin-friction and Nusselt number have been discussed in detailed through graphs. The natural convection due to ramped wall temperature (RWT) has also been compared with that of the constant wall temperature (CWT). It is observed that the fluid velocity and temperature profiles are greater in case of CWT than the case of RWT. Also it is noticed that the flow accelerates with increasing values of heat source parameter, permeability parameter and Dufour number while the flow retardation is observed with increasing values of radiation parameter, magnetic field parameter and Schmidt number.