Paper 37
Paper 37
Paper 37
www.elsevier.com/locate/ijts
The effect of lateral mass flux on the natural convection boundary layers
induced by a heated vertical plate embedded in a saturated porous medium
with internal heat generation
Mohamed E. Ali
King Saud University, Mechanical Engineering Department, PO Box 800, Riyadh 11421, Saudi Arabia
Received 6 December 2005; received in revised form 16 March 2006; accepted 4 April 2006
Available online 13 June 2006
Abstract
The effect of suction or injection on the free convection boundary layers induced by a heated vertical plate embedded in a saturated porous
medium with an exponential decaying heat generation is studied. Similarity solutions are obtained for the governing steady laminar boundary
layer equations using Darcy and Boussinesq approximations. The plate is assumed to have a power law temperature distribution. Three distinct
cases of uniform lateral mass flux, uniform surface temperature, and uniform heat flux are studied. The effects of suction/injection parameter fw
and temperature exponent on the flow of heat transfer are studied. Some exact analytical results are obtained for = 1, 1/3. Critical values of
the suction/injection parameter are obtained for adiabatic surface as a function of the temperature exponent parameter .
2006 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Porous media; Similarity solution; Heat generation; Vertical plate; Natural convection
1. Introduction
Heated surfaces embedded in saturated porous medium have
many geophysical and engineering applications. Such applications are flow of groundwater, geothermal energy utilization,
insulation of buildings, energy storage and recovery and chemical reactor engineering.
Comprehensive reviews of the convection through porous
media have reported by Nield and Bejan [1] and by Ingham
and Pop [2]. Cheng and Minkowycz [3] studied the steady free
convection about a vertical plate embedded in a porous media
using the boundary layer assumptions and Darcy model by the
similarity method. Cheng [4] extended the work of [3] by studying the effect of lateral mass flux with prescribed temperature
and velocity as power law on the vertical surface. The necessary and sufficient conditions, under which similarity solutions
exist for free convection boundary layers adjacent to flat plates
in porous media were reported by Johnson and Cheng [5] using a power law forms. Other investigators [69] studied some
E-mail address: mali@ksu.edu.sa (M.E. Ali).
1290-0729/$ see front matter 2006 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.ijthermalsci.2006.04.008
similar porous medium cases using Darcy and Boussinesq approximations with different power law velocity and temperature
variation at the boundaries. Furthermore, exact analytical solutions for free convection boundary layers on a heated vertical
plate with lateral mass flux embedded in a saturated porous
medium were reported by Magyari and Keller [10]. In their
study exact analytical solutions are reported for some temperature exponent index = 1, 1/3, and 1/2 and they found
that for = 1/2, solutions can only exist for suction (fw > 0)
and they referred to this condition as suction-born. A new class
of similarity solutions has obtained for isothermal vertical plate
in a semi-infinite quiescent fluid with internal heat generation
decaying exponentially by Crepeau and Clarksean [11]. Postelnicu and Pop [12] have used the same source function to study
the boundary layers developed by heated vertical and horizontal surfaces in porous medium with power-law wall temperature distribution. Postelnicu et al. [13] extended the work of
[12] for permeable vertical surface. Free convection boundary
layer developed by a vertical flat plate in porous medium, saturated with a non-Newtonian fluid with internal heat generation,
was reported by Grosan and Pop [14,15]. Furthermore, similarity solution for free convection boundary layer over a non-
158
Nomenclature
A
C
f
fw
g
k
K
Nux
q
Rax
T
u, v
x, y
constant (>0)
specific heat of the fluid
dimensionless stream function
suction/injection parameter
acceleration due to gravity
thermal conductivity of porous medium
permeability of porous medium
local Nusselt number
internal heat generation rate per unit volume
modified local Rayleigh number
(gK(Tw T )x/)
temperature
velocity components in x and y directions
Coordinates along and normal to the plate,
respectively
Greek symbols
Subscripts
w
plate condition
ambient condition
Superscript
flow using Darcy and Boussinesq approximations for incompressible viscous fluid are [1]
u v
+
=0
x y
u gK T
=
y
y
T
T
2T
q
u
+v
= 2 +
x
y
C
y
(2)
(3)
Fig. 1. Schematic of the coordinate system, boundary conditions, vertical velocity and temperature profiles adjacent to a permeable heated vertical surface
embedded in a saturated porous medium with internal heat generation.
(1)
(4)
Rax f (),
T = T + Ax (),
u=
x
T T
,
=
T w T
1/2
Rax ( + 1)f + ( 1)f
(6)
v=
2x
where f , f , and are the dimensionless stream function, vertical velocity, and temperature field respectively and Rax =
gK(Tw T )x/() is the modified local Rayleigh number.
Substitution in the governing equations (1)(3) gives rise to the
following system of ordinary differential equations
f =
+1
f f + e = 0
+
2
and are subject to the following boundary conditions:
(7)
(0) = 1,
(9)
f (0) = fw ,
() = 0
f () = 0
(8)
(11)
The quantity f (0) = fw is referred to as the dimensionless suction/injection parameter. Therefore, fw = zero corresponding
to an impermeable surface where the equations reduce to those
of Postelnicu and Pop [12] and of course their solutions are recoverable. On the other hand, if the internal heat generation is
off, the equations reduce to those of Cheng and Minkowycz [3],
and Magyari and Keller [10]. Furthermore, the plate is permeable with suction or injection according to fw > 0 or fw < 0
respectively.
Eq. (7) and the boundary conditions (9)(10) yield that,
f () = () which shows [3,4,10,12] that the dimensionless
vertical velocity and temperature profiles are identical. Therefore, according to Eqs. (7)(11), the present problem reduces
to the solution of the following nonlinear ordinary differential
equation
+ 1
ff f 2 + e = 0
2
subject to the boundary conditions
f +
f (0) = 1,
f (0) = fw ,
f () = 0
(12)
(13)
Nux Rax
= (0)
1/2
v(x, ) =
Rax ( + 1)f ()
2x
1/2
Rax
=
+1
3 + 1
fw +
f 2 () d 1
2
2
0
= (0)
(17)
() = e
(18)
such that
(10)
1/2
Rax ( + 1)f (0)
vw =
2x
Nux
159
(15)
(19)
f () = 2
(20)
+1
2 fw
(23)
(24)
(25)
(16)
= 1 ( = 1/3, fw = 0) (21)
1/3
1/4
0
1/3
1
1/2
Bagai [16]
Present results
0.99961
0.67917
0.21524
0.11415
0.52409
1.000501
0.67985
0.21566
0.114075
0.523878
0.21524
0.11415
0.52409
160
Table 2
Critical values of the suction/injection parameter (fw )c where the surface is
adiabatic for various values of showing the temperature gradients at the surface (0) that are almost zero
1/2
(fw )c
0.5
1/3
0.25
0
0.15
1/3
0.5
4.95214
3.0000
2.32415
0.86793
0.20464
0.5441
1.2945
0.0000039
0.0000954
0.0000077
0.0000069
0.0000072
0.0000042
0.0000088
fw
Cheng [4]
Present results
1.0
0.8
0.4
0.0
1.0
0.6180
0.6770
0.8198
1.0000
1.6180
0.6180
0.6770
0.8198
1.0000
1.6180
0.61803
0.67703
0.81980
1.00000
1.61803
Table 4
Comparison with the previously published results for permeable heated vertical plate embedded in porous medium with internal heat generation q
fw
1/2
1.0
0.6
0.6
1.0
= 1/3
= 1.0
Present results
Present results
Present results
0.3658
0.3184
0.0744
0.0387
0.3654
0.3182
0.0742
0.0391
0.06636
0.0095
0.2869
0.4288
0.0662
0.0094
0.2869
0.4289
0.2550
0.3407
0.7837
0.9999
0.2550
0.3407
0.7837
1.0000
Fig. 3. Vertical velocity or temperature profiles for uniform lateral mass flux
( = 1) for different values of suction/injection fw .
heat is directed from the plate to the porous medium. Consequently, the boundary layer thickness decreases as fw increases.
It should be mentioned that the case of fw = 1 which is obtained analytically by Eqs. (18)(20) is confirmed here as mentioned earlier. On the other hand, the uniform heat flux case
obtained by Eq. (14) for = 1/3 where qw is not function of
x is demonstrated in Fig. 4 in terms of the temperature profile for various fw . As in the previous figures the boundary
layer thickness decreases as fw increases and the surface heat
transfer is directed from the surface to the convecting fluid for
fw > (fw )c = 0.5441, where at this critical value the surface
is adiabatic. However, for fw < (fw )c heat is directed towards
the surface from the porous medium. Furthermore, the inequality (24) is satisfied as well as in the previous Figs. 2 and 3 since
> 1/3. It should be noted that, other critical values corre-
161
Fig. 4. Vertical velocity or temperature profiles for uniform heat flux ( = 1/3)
for different values of suction/injection fw .
Fig. 5. Vertical velocity or temperature profiles for = 1/3 for different values of suction/injection fw . fw = 3.0 corresponds to adiabatic and frictionless
(f (0) = (0) = 0) slipping of the fluid along the wall.
162
Fig. 6. Dimensionless shear stress or temperature gradients at the wall for different showing the case of = 12 where the solution does not exist as fw
approaches zero.
Fig. 7. Critical values of the suction/injection parameter (fw )c where the surface is adiabatic. Table 3 gives the point coordinates, while Eq. (29) gives the
fitting curve.
(29)
163
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in a saturated porous medium, Heat and Mass Transfer 36 (2000) 109
116.
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