INVESTIGATIONS INTO MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMIC BOUNDARY LAYER FLOW PAST INCLINED SURFACES

Abstract

This dissertation investigates the effect of heat and mass transfer over a heated inclined plate with viscous dissipation. An incompressible ferrofluid such as polyethylene oxide solution is made to uniformly flow over a heated plate and a transverse magnetic field applied to regulate the flow. The partial differential equations modelling the problem include the continuity, momentum, energy and concentration equations. The resulting system of partial differential equations is transformed into a system of non-linear ordinary differential equations by employing the technique of Similarity Analysis. The dimensionless system of third order ordinary differential equations is then transformed into a system of first order differential equations. The transformed system of first order equations is then solved by using the fourth order Runge Kutta algorithm along with shooting method, with the aid of Maple 16 computer software package. It was observed that the temperature of the plate decreased when the angle of inclination (0() increased from 0° to 10° ("cooling angle") and increased when the angle of inclination was greater thanlfl". The temperature also decreased when both thermal and solutal Grashof numbers (Gr) and (Gc) respectively were increased. However a rise in temperature was observed when the Prandtl number (Pr), Eckert number (Ec), Biot number (Bi), viscous dissipation parameter (N), Schmidt number (Sc) and local heat generation Parameter (Q) were increased.