Thermal radiation effects on MHD convective flow over a plate in a porous medium by perturbation technique

Abstract

This paper analyzes the influence of thermal radiation on the problem of unsteady magneto-convection flow of an electrically conducting fluid past a semi-infinite vertical porous plate embedded in a porous medium with time dependent suction. Perturbation technique is applied to transform the non-linear coupled governing partial differential equations in dimensionless form into a system of ordinary differential equations. The resulting equations are solved analytically and the solutions for the velocity and temperature fields are obtained. For different values of the flow parameters, the values for Nusselt number and skin-friction co-efficient are calculated. It is observed that the increase in the radiation parameter implies the decrease in the boundary layer thickness and enhances the rate of heat transfer. The velocity decreases as the existence of magnetic field becomes stronger.