Combined Influence of Thermal Diffusion and Diffusion Thermo on Unsteady MHD Free Convective Fluid Flow Past an Infinite Vertical Porous Plate in Presence of Chemical Reaction

The present investigation is concerned with the effects of thermal diffusion (Soret) and diffusion thermo (Dufour) on an unsteady MHD free convective flow with heat and mass transfer of an electrically conducting fluid in the presence of chemical reaction. A uniform magnetic field acts perpendicular to the porous surface, which absorbs the fluid with a suction velocity varying with time. The problem is governed by coupled non-linear partial differential equations with appropriate boundary conditions. A finite element numerical solution is developed to solve the resulting well-posed two-point boundary value problem. The present numerical results are compared with available data and are found in an excellent agreement. The expressions for velocity, temperature and concentration fields are obtained. With the aid of these, the expressions for the coefficient of skin-friction, the rate of heat transfer in the form of Nusselt number and the rate of mass transfer in the form of Sherwood number are derived. Finally the effects of various physical parameters of the flow quantities are studied with the help of graphs and tables. © 2016, The Institution of Engineers (India).