Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) Free Convective Flow past an Infinite Vertical Porous Plate with Joule Heating

Sigey K. Johana, Okelo A. Jeconia, Gatheri K. Francis, Ngesa O. Joel

Department of Pure and Applied Mathematics, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Nairobi, Kenya.
School of Mathematics and Statistics, The Kenya Polytechnic University College, Nairobi, Kenya.

DOI: 10.4236/am.2013.45113                

Abstract

This work addresses the problem of Magnetohydrodynamic laminar unsteady flow of an incompressible electrically conducting fluid past an infinite vertical porous plate. It investigates how joule heating affects the velocity and temperature profiles of the fluid flow subjected to transverse magnetic field. The research examines specific equations of MHD flow which are solved numerically by finite difference approximations, using computer programme. The numerical results of this study reveal that an increase in joules heating parameter causes an increase in the velocity and temperature profiles uniformly near the plate but remain constantly distributed away from the plate, implying that the flow field of the MHD free convective flow is influenced substantially by the strength of Joules heating near the wall of the plate and at the mainstream.

Keywords

Incompressible Flow; Electrically Conducting; Joule Heating

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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