Heat and Mass Transfer in Magnetohydrodynamics Flow About a Horizontal Plate Past, a Finite Porous Plate

Abstract

An investigation of heat and mass transfer in MHD ow about a horizontal plate past nite plate, in a porous medium was carried out. The e ect of magnetic eld on mass and heat transfer was investigated. The study was governed by Navier- stokes equations, energy equation, Ohm's law and concentration equation. These equations were formulated inform of partial di erential equations to represent the general phenomena of mass and heat. Then, the general equations were modi ed into speci c equations to meet the objectives of the study. The resulting speci c operational equations of Navier -Stokes, energy and concentration were found to be non linear hence, they were transformed into dimensionless form by substituting the non dimensional parameters. The discretization process was carried out for the dimensionless equations using implicit nite di erence method. The subsequent dis- creet equations were solved using Matlab computer program which was written to meet the purpose of the study. The results obtained were presented graphically for various values of the physical parameters. The e ects of magnetic eld on dimen- sionless velocity , temperature , concentration and skin friction were studied. The values of magnetic parameter M were varied from 2 to 5 with an interval of one unit and the corresponding e ects on mass and heat transfer obtained. We established that magnetic eld is directly proportional to the temperature pro le, velocity pro- le, skin-friction and increase in magnetic eld led to a decrease in concentration pro le. The increase in magnetic parameter M had accelerated e ect on velocity pro le, temperature pro le and skin-friction. These results can be used by engineers and scientists in selecting appropriate materials used to design devices which involve magnetic eld. The ndings may also be useful when designing propulsion devices for propelling aircraft, missiles, satellites and in chilling of nuclear reactor.