MHD Mixed Convection Heat Transfer in a Vertical Channel with Temperature-Dependent Transport Properties

An analysis is carried out to study the effects of temperature-dependent transport properties on the fully developed free and forced MHD convection flow in a vertical channel. In this model, viscous and Ohmic dissipation terms are also included. The governing nonlinear equations (in non-dimensional form) are solved numerically by a second order finite difference scheme. A parametric study is performed in order to illustrate the interactive influences of the model parameters; namely, the magnetic parameter, the variable viscosity parameter, the mixed convection parameter, the variable thermal conductivity parameter, the Brinkmann number and the Eckert number. The velocity field, the temperature field, the skin friction and the Nusselt number are evaluated for several sets of values of these parameters. For some special cases, the obtained numerical results are compared with the available results in the literature: Good agreement is found. Of all the parameters, the variable thermo-physical transport property has the strongest effect on the drag, heat transfer characteristics, the stream-wise velocity, and the temperature field.