Nonsimilar boundary layer analysis of double-diffusive convection from a vertical truncated cone in a porous medium with variable viscosity

This work presents a boundary layer analysis about variable viscosity effects on the double-diffusive convection near a vertical truncated cone in a fluid-saturated porous medium with constant wall temperature and concentration. The viscosity of the fluid is assumed to be an inverse linear function of the temperature. A boundary layer analysis is employed to derive the nondimensional nonsimilar governing equations, and the transformed boundary layer governing equations are solved by the cubic spline collocation method to yield computationally efficient numerical solutions. The obtained results are found to be in good agreement with previous papers on special cases of the problem. Results for local Nusselt and Sherwood numbers are presented as functions of viscosity-variation parameter, buoyancy ratio, and Lewis number. For a porous medium saturated with a Newtonian fluid with viscosity proportional to an inverse linear function of temperature, higher value of viscosity-variation parameter leads to the decrease of the viscosity in fluid flow, thus increasing the fluid velocity as well as the local Nusselt number and the local Sherwood number.     

Hydromagnetic rotating flow of a fourth‐order fluid past a porous plate

The rotating flow in the presence of a magnetic field is a problem belonging to hydromagnetics and deserves to be more widely studied than it has been to date. In the non‐linear regime the literature is scarce. We develop the governing equations for the unsteady hydromagnetic rotating flow of a fourth‐order fluid past a porous plate. The steady flow is governed by a boundary value problem in which the order of differential equations is more than the number of available boundary conditions. It is shown that by augmenting the boundary conditions based on asymptotic structures at infinity it is possible to obtain numerical solutions of the nonlinear hydromagnetic equations. Effects of uniform suction or blowing past the porous plate, exerted magnetic field and rotation on the flow phenomena, especially on the boundary layer structure near the plate, are numerically analysed and discussed. The flow behaviours of the Newtonian fluid and second‐, third‐ and fourth‐order non‐Newtonian fluids are compared for the special flow problem, respectively. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Perturbations for linear difference equations

In this paper we study boundary value problems for perturbed second-order linear difference equations with a small parameter. The reduced problem obtained when the parameter is equal to zero is a first-order linear difference equation. The solution is represented as a convergent series in the small parameter, whose coefficients are given by means of solutions of the reduced problem.     

Convective heat transfer in a conducting fluid over a permeable stretching surface with suction and internal heat generation/absorption

We consider a convective flow in a porous medium of an incompressible viscous conducting fluid impinging on a permeable stretching surface with suction, and internal heat generation/absorption. Using a similarity transformation the governing equations of the problem are reduced to a coupled third-order nonlinear ordinary differential equations. We first examine a number of special cases for which we may obtain exact solutions. We then obtain analytical solutions (by the Homotopy Analysis Method) and numerical solutions (by a boundary value problem solver), in order to further study the behavior of the nonlinear differential equations, for various values of the physical parameters. Our numerical solutions are shown to agree with the available results in the literature. We then employ the numerical results to bring out the effects of the suction parameter, heat source/sink parameter, stretching parameter, porosity parameter, the Prandtl number and the free convection parameter on the flow and heat transfer characteristics. In the absence of suction and free convection, our findings are in agreement with the corresponding numerical results of Attia [H.A. Attia, On the effectiveness of porosity on stagnation point flow towards a stretching surface with heat generation, Comput. Mater. Sci. 38 (2007) 741-745].     

Magnetohydrodynamic non-Darcy mixed convection heat transfer from a vertical heated plate embedded in a porous medium with variable porosity

A numerical model is developed to study magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) mixed convection from a heated vertical plate embedded in a Newtonian fluid saturated sparsely packed porous medium by considering the variation of permeability, porosity and thermal conductivity. The boundary layer flow in the porous medium is governed by Forchheimer–Brinkman extended Darcy model. The conservation equations that govern the problem are reduced to a system of non-linear ordinary differential equations by using similarity transformations. Because of non-linearity, the governing equations are solved numerically. The effects of magnetic field on velocity and temperature distributions are studied in detail by considering uniform permeability (UP) and variable permeability (VP) of the porous medium and the results are discussed graphically. Besides, skin friction and Nusselt number are also computed for various physical parameters governing the problem under consideration. It is found that the inertial parameter has a significant influence in increasing the flow field and the rate of heat transfer for variable permeability case. The important finding of the present work is that the magnetic field has considerable effects on the boundary layer velocity and on the rate of heat transfer for variable permeability of the porous medium. Further, the results obtained under the limiting conditions were found to be in good agreement with the existing ones.     

Combined effect of magnetic field and heat absorption on unsteady free convection and heat transfer flow in a micropolar fluid past a semi-infinite moving plate with viscous dissipation using element free Galerkin method

The fully developed electrically conducting micropolar fluid flow and heat transfer along a semi-infinite vertical porous moving plate is studied including the effect of viscous heating and in the presence of a magnetic field applied transversely to the direction of the flow. The Darcy-Brinkman-Forchheimer model which includes the effects of boundary and inertia forces is employed. The differential equations governing the problem have been transformed by a similarity transformation into a system of non-dimensional differential equations which are solved numerically by element free Galerkin method. Profiles for velocity, microrotation and temperature are presented for a wide range of plate velocity, viscosity ratio, Darcy number, Forchhimer number, magnetic field parameter, heat absorption parameter and the micropolar parameter. The skin friction and Nusselt numbers at the plates are also shown graphically. The present problem has significant applications in chemical engineering, materials processing, solar porous wafer absorber systems and metallurgy.     

A method of solving a nonlinear boundary value problem with a parameter for a loaded differential equation

A nonlinear loaded differential equation with a parameter on a finite interval is studied. The interval is partitioned by the load points, at which the values of the solution to the equation are set as additional parameters. A nonlinear boundary value problem for the considered equation is reduced to a nonlinear multipoint boundary value problem for the system of nonlinear ordinary differential equations with parameters. For fixed parameters, we obtain the Cauchy problems for ordinary differential equations on the subintervals. Substituting the values of the solutions to these problems into the boundary condition and continuity conditions at the partition points, we compose a system of nonlinear algebraic equations in parameters. A method of solving the boundary value problem with a parameter is proposed. The method is based on finding the solution to the system of nonlinear algebraic equations composed.     

Boundary integral method for Stokes flow past a porous body

In this paper we obtain an indirect boundary integral method in order to prove existence and uniqueness of the classical solution to a boundary value problem for the Stokes–Brinkman-coupled system, which describes an unbounded Stokes flow past a porous body in terms of Brinkman's model. Therefore, one assumes that the flow inside the body is governed by the continuity and Brinkman equations. Some asymptotic results in both cases of large and, respectively, of low permeability are also obtained. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The interaction between a penny-shaped crack and a spherical inclusion under torsion

The axisymmetric interaction problem of an elastic spherical inclusion with a penny-shaped crack in an elastic space under torsion is considered. The superposition and reflection methods [3]-[4] are used to solve the mixed boundary value problem in question. With the help of the dual integral equations technique and appropriate re-expansion of the eigenfunction, the problem is reduced to an infinite system of linear algebraic equations of the second kind. The matrix elements of that system decrease exponentially along the rows and the columns. Its unique solution is proved to exist in a proper class of sequences and is shown to be represented by a convergent, in the vicinity of the origin, power series in a geometric parameter, equal to the ratio of the radius of the inclusion to its distance from the crack. This procedure provides an efficient formula for the stress intensity factor.     

On existence and uniqueness for a coupled system modeling immiscible flow through a porous medium

We consider a system of nonlinear coupled partial differential equations that models immiscible two-phase flow through a porous medium. A primary difficulty with this problem is its degenerate nature. Under reasonable assumptions on the data, and for appropriate boundary and initial conditions, we prove the existence of a weak solution to the problem, in a certain sense, using a compactness argument. This is accomplished by regularizing the problem and proving that the regularized problem has a unique solution which is bounded independently of the regularization parameter. We also establish a priori estimates for uniqueness of a solution.     

Global Weak Solutions for a Parabolic System Modeling a One-Dimensional Miscible Flow in Porous Media

We consider an initial boundary value problem for a nonlinear differential system of two equations. Such a system is formed by the equations of compressible miscible flow in a one-dimensional porous medium. No assumption about the mobility ratio is involved. Under some reasonable assumptions on the data, we prove the existence of a global weak solution. Our basic approach is the semi-Galerkin method. We use the technique of renormalized solutions for parabolic equations in the derivation ofa prioriestimates.     

Approximate solution to a boundary value problem for the Lyapunov differential equation with a parameter

A special boundary value problem is studied for the Lyapunov differential equation which is used for investigation of the asymptotic properties of solutions to systems of periodic differential equations with a parameter. An algorithm is proposed for constructing an approximate solution to this boundary value problem, and conditions on the parameter are found under which the zero solution to the system is asymptotically stable.     

MHD non-Darcy mixed convective diffusion of species over a stretching sheet embedded in a porous medium with non-uniform heat source/sink, variable viscosity and Soret effect

The effects of temperature dependent viscosity and non-uniform heat source/sink on non-Darcy MHD mixed convection boundary layer flow over a vertical stretching sheet embedded in a fluid-saturated porous media is studied in this paper. Boundary layer equations are transformed into ordinary differential equations using self-similarity transformation which are then solved numerically using fifth-order Runge-Kutta-Fehlberg method with shooting technique for various values of the governing parameters. The effects of variable viscosity, porosity, electric field parameter, non-uniform heat source/sink parameters, Soret number and Schmidt number on concentration profiles are analyzed and discussed. Favorable comparisons with previously published work on various special cases of the problem are obtained. Numerical results for variation of the local Sherwood number with buoyancy parameter, Schmidt number, and Soret number are reported graphically to show some interesting aspects of the physical parameters.     

A second-order difference scheme for a parameterized singular perturbation problem

In this paper we consider a singularly perturbed quasilinear boundary value problem depending on a parameter. The problem is discretized using a hybrid difference scheme on Shishkin-type meshes. We show that the scheme is second-order convergent, in the discrete maximum norm, independent of singular perturbation parameter. Numerical experiments support these theoretical results.     

Effects of heat generation/absorption on stagnation point flow of nanofluid over a surface with convective boundary conditions

Analysis has been conducted to analyze the stagnation point flow of nanofluid near a permeable stretched surface with convective boundary condition. The relevant problem formulation is presented in the presence of porous medium and internal heat generation/absorption. The effects of Brownian motion and thermophoresis occur in the transport equations. The velocity, temperature and nanoparticle concentration profiles are analyzed with respect to the involved parameters of interest namely Brownian motion parameters, thermophoresis parameter, permeability parameter, source/sink parameter, ratio of rate constants to free stream velocity and stretching velocity, Biot number and Prandtl number. A comparative study between the previous published and present results in a limiting sense is found in an excellent agreement.     

A Parameter-Uniform B-Spline Collocation Method for Singularly Perturbed Semilinear Reaction-Diffusion Problems

We consider a Dirichlet boundary value problem for a class of singularly perturbed semilinear reaction-diffusion equations. A  B-spline collocation method on a piecewise-uniform Shishkin mesh is developed to solve such problems numerically. The convergence analysis is given and the method is shown to be almost second-order convergent, uniformly with respect to the perturbation parameter ε in the maximum norm. Numerical results are presented to validate the theoretical results.     

Effects of chemical reaction and variable viscosity on hydromagnetic mixed convection heat and mass transfer for Hiemenz flow through porous media with radiation

The effect of chemical reaction and variable viscosity on hydromagnetic mixed convection heat and mass transfer for Hiemenz flow through porous media has been studied in the presence of radiation and magnetic field. The plate surface is embedded in a uniform Darcian porous medium in order to allow for possible fluid wall suction or blowing and has a power-law variation of both the wall temperature and concentration. The similarity solution is used to transform the system of partial differential equations, describing the problem under consideration, into a boundary value problem of coupled ordinary differential equations, and an efficient numerical technique is implemented to solve the reduced system. Numerical calculations are carried out, for various values of the dimensionless parameters of the problem, which include a variable viscosity, chemical reactions, radiation, magnetic field, porous medium and power index of the wall temperature parameters. Comparisons with previously published works are performed and excellent agreement between the results is obtained. The results are presented graphically and the conclusion is drawn that the flow field and other quantities of physical interest are significantly influenced by these parameters.     

Free-surface shapes of a jet injecting through a porous wall

For a jet incident on a porous wall at which the normal fluidspeed is specified, it is found that the problem of determiningthe free surface of the jet is governed by a system of nonlinearintegral equations relating the flow angles on the boundary,on the free surface, and on the porous wall. With a constantnormal speed at the porous wall, the system reduces to an integralequation for the flow angle, which is solved numerically; anda comparison with previous results is made. Numerical results,corresponding to different nonconstant normal jet speeds alongthe porous wall, are also presented. The extension of this formulationto include the effect of gravity is also given.     

Flows of a polymer fluid in domain with impermeable boundaries

Nonlinear boundary value problems modeling steady polymer flows in domains with impermeable solid walls are studied. The solvability of a nonhomogeneous boundary value problem for the equations governing a polymer flow in the case of an impermeable boundary is proved. The norms of solutions are estimated. The set of weak solutions is shown to be sequentially weakly closed. Additionally, explicit formulas are found for computing the solution of the boundary value problem describing the polymer flow induced by a stretching (shrinking) sheet.     

Acoustic gravity waves: a computational approach

This paper discusses numerical solutions of a hyperbolic initial boundary value problem that arises from acoustic wave propagation in the atmosphere. Field equations are derived from the atmospheric fluid flow governed by the Euler equations. The resulting original problem is nonlinear. A first-order linearized version of the problem is used for computational purposes. The main difficulty in the problem as with any open boundary problem is in obtaining stable boundary conditions. Approximate boundary conditions are derived and shown to be stable. Numerical results are presented to verify the effectiveness of these boundary conditions.