A Generic Computational Solution of a Natural Convection Flow past an Infinite Vertical Porous Plate

Abstract

A simulation was carried out on an unsteady flow of a viscous, incompressible and electrically conducting fluid past an infinite vertical porous plate. A generic computer program using the Galerkin finite element method is employed to solve the coupled non-linear differential equations for velocity and temperature fields. The diffusion equation, the energy equation, the momentum equations and other relevant parameters are transformed into interpretable postfix codes. Numerical calculations are carried out on the flow fields both in the presence of cooling and heating of the plate by free convection currents. The effects of the dimensionless parameters, namely, the Prandtl number, the Eckert number, the modified Grashof number, the Schmidt number and the time on the temperature and velocity distributions are discussed.