Thermophoresis and mass transfer effects on flow of micropolar fluid past a continuously moving porous plate with variable viscosity and heat generation/absorption

Abstract

ABSTRACTThermophoresis particle deposition and mass transfer effects of a chemically reacting micropolar fluid past a continuously moving porous plate with heat generation/absorption and variable viscosity is investigated numerically. The fluid viscosity is considered to vary linearly with temperature. The radiative heat flux, heat generation/absorption, and the viscous dissipation are taken into account in the energy equation. The partial differential equations governing the flow have been transformed into system of nonlinear ordinary differential equation using similarity transformation and are solved numerically by fourth‐order Runge–Kutta method with shooting technique. Effect of thermophoresis and suction/injection parameters on the velocity, micro‐rotation, temperature, and concentration of the micropolar fluid is discussed and presented graphically. Effect of increasing chemical reaction parameter as well as Schmidt number on the concentration profiles are shown graphically. The result shows that the effect of chemical reaction parameter influences highly the concentration of the fluid within the boundary layer. Temperature of the fluid was also found increased due to increase in heat generation/absorption parameter. The rate of heat transfer from the wall for different values of Prantal number is plotted. © 2013 Curtin University of Technology and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.