Similarity analysis in magnetohydrodynamics: Hall effects on forced convective heat and mass transfer of non–Newtonian power law fluids past a semi-infinite vertical flat plate

Abstract

The forced convective heat and mass transfer along a semi-infinite vertical flat plate is investigated for non–Newtonian power law fluids in the presence of a strong nonuniform magnetic field, and the Hall currents are taken into account. The similarity solutions are obtained using transformations group theory. These are the only symmetry transformations admitted by the field equations. The application of one-parameter groups reduces the number of independent variables by one, and consequently the system of governing partial differential equations with boundary conditions reduces to a system of ordinary differential equations with the appropriate boundary conditions. Furthermore the similarity equations are solved numerically by using a fourth-order Runge-Kutta scheme with the shooting method. Numerical results for the velocity profiles, the temperature profiles and the concentration profiles are presented graphically for various values of the power-law viscosity index n, generalized Schmidt number Sc, generalized Prandtl number Pr, the magnetic parameter M and the Hall parameter m.