Abstract:
In this dissertation, the effect of radiation on magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) free
convection flow along a vertical flat plate in presence of Joule heating and heat generation
have been investigated. The governing equations associated with the conduction based
boundary conditions are transformed into dimensionless form employing the appropriate
transformations and then solved numerically using the implicit finite difference method
with Keller box scheme (1978). The numerical solutions are obtained in terms of velocity
profiles, temperature distributions, skin friction coefficient, surface temperature
distributions and heat transfer rate and then presented graphically and discussed.
Afterward, the above effects on MHD free convection boundary layer flow with viscous
dissipation are also analyzed. A complete parametric analysis is done on these
numerical results to show the effects of the magnetic parameter, radiation
parameter, Joule heating parameter, heat generation parameter and Prandtl number.
It is found that radiation, Joule heating and heat generation play significant role on
MHD natural convection flow during heat transfer. It is also found that the velocity
and temperature of the fluid within the boundary layer and the skin friction and
surface temperature along the plate increase due to the effect of viscous dissipation
parameter. To illustrate the accuracy of the results, the present results for the local
skin friction and surface temperature distribution excluding the effects of radiation,
Joule heating and heat generation are compared with the results of Merkin and Pop
(1996) and Alim et al. (2008) designed for the fixed value of Prandtl number and an
excellent agreement were found.
