Analytical and numerical investigation of heat and mass transfer effects on magnetohydrodynamic natural convective flow past a vertical porous plate

This study investigated the effects of the Hall current on the unsteady natural convective flow of a viscous, incompressible, and electrically conducting optically thick radiating fluid past a vertical porous plate in the presence of a uniform transverse magnetic field. Rosseland diffusion approximation was used to describe the radiative heat flux in the energy equation. Analytical and numerical solutions of coupled governing partial differential equations for fluid velocity, fluid temperature, and fluid concentration profiles were obtained via perturbation and finite element techniques, respectively. Graphs were used as bases for examining the effects of various dimensionless engineering parameters, namely, the Grashof number for heat and mass transfer, a magnetic field parameter, the Prandtl and Schmidt numbers, a thermal radiation parameter, the Hall parameter entering into the problem of primary and secondary velocities, and temperature and concentration profiles throughout the boundary layer. Expressions for skin friction, the Nusselt number, and the Sherwood number were derived and represented in tabular form. Results revealed that flow field and temperature distribution are considerably influenced by the thermal radiation parameter. The research also obtained limiting cases, which were found to be in good agreement with previously published results.