Viscous dissipation and Joule heating effects on MHD-free convection from a vertical plate with power-law variation in surface temperature in the presence of Hall and ion-slip currents

Abstract

An analysis is presented to study the effects of viscous dissipation and Joule heating on MHD-free convection flow past a semi-infinite vertical flat plate in the presence of the combined effect of Hall and ion-slip currents for the case of power-law variation of the wall temperature. The fluid is permeated by a strong transverse magnetic field imposed perpendicularly to the plate on the assumption of a small magnetic Reynolds number. The governing differential equations are transformed by introducing proper non-similarity variables and solved numerically. The effects of various parameters on the velocity and temperature profiles as well as the local wall shear stresses and the local Nusselt number are presented graphically and in tabular form. It is found that the magnetic field acts as a retarding force on the tangential flow but has a propelling effect on the induced lateral flow. The skin-friction factor for the tangential flow and the local Nusselt number decrease but the skin-friction factor for the lateral flow increases as the magnetic field increases. The skin-friction factor for the tangential and lateral flows are increased while the local Nusselt number is decreased if the effect of viscous dissipation, Joule heating and heat generation are considered. The opposite trend was observed as the temperature power coefficient n is increased. Also, the skin-friction factor for the tangential flow and the local Nusselt number are increased due to the Hall and ion-slip currents, whereas the skin-friction factor for the tangential flow increases when Hall values increase to one and decreases for values of Hall greater than one, but reduces by rising ion-slip values.