Physical Mathematics

Inertia effect on free convection over horizontal surface in a porous medium with a variable wall heat flux and variable wall temperature containing Internal heat generation

Abstract

Ferdows M and Liu D

The analysis is performed for the steady-state boundary layer flow with free convective heat transfer over a horizontal surface embedded in a fluid-saturated porous medium subject to variable wall heat flux (WHF) and variable wall temperature (VWT). In modeling the flow inertia, no slip boundary conditions and exponentially decaying internal heat generation (IHG) are taken into account. The similarity equations are solved numerically and their solutions are dependent on the problem parameters G, m, λ. The influence of such parameters on flow characteristics such as velocity, temperature profiles, the skin friction coefficient, and the Nusselt number are thoroughly discussed. It is found that the flow profiles along with physical parameters significantly altered the rate of heat transfer and induced more flow within the boundary layer than that of without IHG.