MATHRMATICAL MODELLING OF BUOYANCY-DRIVEN

MAGNETO-CONVECTIVE HEAT AND MASS TRANSFER FROM AN

ISOTHERMAL SPHERE IN A NON-DARCY PERMEABLE REGIME
WITH THERMOPHYSICAL EFFECTS

V. R. Prasad1, A.Y. Bakier2, O. A. Bg3, and Q. Li4

1
Applied Mathematics, Department of Mathematics, Madanapalle Institute of Technology and
Science, Madanapalle-517325, India.
2
Department of Mathematics, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt.
3
Group Leader- Biomechanics and Biotechnology Research, Mechanical Engineering Group,
Department of Engineering and Mathematics, Sheaf Building, Sheffield Hallam University,
Sheffield, S1 1WB, England, UK.
Email: docoanwarbeg@hotmail.co.uk
4
Theoretical and Applied Aerodynamics Research, Mechanical Engineering Group,
Department of Engineering and Mathematics, Sheaf Building, Sheffield Hallam University,
Sheffield, S1 1WB, England, UK.

Received 29 October 2009; accepted 18 January 2010

ABSTRACT

The natural convection magneothydrodynamic (MHD) heat and mass transfer in laminar,
steady, boundary-layer flow from a permeable isothermal sphere embedded in a non-Darcy
porous medium including Soret and Dufour effects is theoretically and numerically studied.
The resulting governing equations are non-dimensionalized and transformed into non-similar
form and then solved numerically using the extensively validated, robust Sparrow-Quack-
Boerner local nonsimilarity method (LNM). Dimensionless velocity (f /), temperature () and
concentration () are all increased with distance along the sphere surface from the lower
stagnation point ( ~0) but decrease continuously with distance into the boundary layer (i.e.
with coordinate). An increase in Darcy number (Da) increases velocity (f /) but causes a
reduction in temperature () and concentration () values throughout the regime normal to the
sphere surface i.e. with coordinate. An increase in Prandtl number (Pr) substantially
decreases temperature (). Negative transpiration (injection) i.e. fw < 0 causes an increase in
velocity (f /) whereas positive transpiration (suction) i.e. fw > 0, at the sphere surface
decelerates the flow i.e. reduces velocity (f/). Increasing Schmidt number (Sc) decreases the
concentration () values for all . An increase in the concentration to thermal buoyancy ratio
parameter, N, causes a reduction in velocity (f /), temperature () and concentration ().
Increasing magnetic parameter (M) strongly decelerates the flow throughout the boundary
layer. Increasing Dufour number (Du) and simultaneously decreasing Soret number (Sr)
significantly increases temperature (), although no temperature overshoot is identified. An
increase in Soret number (Sr) and simultaneous decrease in Dufour number (Du) induces a
strong rise in concentration value (); for Sr > 1 a significant concentration overshoot occurs
near the sphere surface. Increasing Forchheimer inertial drag parameter () reduces flow

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 Mathematical Modelling of Buoyancy-Driven Magneto-Convective Heat and Mass Transfer 81

velocity (f /) but increases temperature () throughout the regime. Applications of the study
include magnetic materials processing and electromagnetic control of waste migration.

Keywords: Heat and mass transfer, non-Darcy model, porous media, permeable sphere, Soret
number, Dufour number, hydromagnetics, transpiration, local nonsimilarity solutions.

1 INTRODUCTION

Combined buoyancy-generated heat and mass transfer, due to temperature and concentration
variations, in fluid-saturated porous media, is of fundamental importance in a variety of
technological processes including softwood drying (Turner and Ferguson 1995), radioactive
thermal osmosis in geo-repositories (Oliver 1986), and solar energy porous wafer collector
systems (Chamkha et al. 2002). Comprehensive reviews of the much of the work
communicated in porous media transport phenomena have been presented by Vafai (Vafai
2000) and Ingham and Pop (Ingham and Pop 2002). Most studies dealing with porous media
have employed the Darcy law which is a linear empirical relation between the flow velocity
and the pressure drop across the porous medium and is limited to slow, viscous-dominated
flows. Also far more attention has been devoted to thermal convection flows in porous media
rather than coupled convective heat and mass transfer in porous media. Several researchers
have considered thermal convection from a spherical body in porous media. Sano and
Makizono (Sano and Makizono 1998) investigated transient forced, free and mixed
convection around a sphere immersed in a Darcian fluid-saturated porous medium at low
Peclet numbers using matched asymptotic expansions. Pop and Yan (Pop and Yan 1998)
obtained analytical solutions for steady heat transfer from an isothermal sphere and also a
circular cylinder in Darcian fluid-saturated porous medium for large Peclet numbers.
However, for high velocity flow situations, the Darcy law is inapplicable, since it does not
account for inertial effects in the porous medium. In this situation, the relation between
velocity and pressure drop is quadratic and the Darcy-Forchheimer drag force model is
required. Such flows can arise for example in the near-wellbore region of high-capacity gas
and condensate petroleum reservoirs and also in highly porous filtration systems under high
blowing rates. Vafai and Tien (Vafai and Tien 1981) presented a seminal study discussing the
influence of Forchheimer inertial effects in porous media convection. Vafai and Tien (Vafai
and Tien 1982) also separately discussed Forchheimer (and other non-Darcian) effects on
mass transfer in porous media. Chen and Chen (Chen and Chen 1990) studied the mixed
convective boundary layer flow from a vertical surface in a fluid-saturated non-Darcian
porous medium including Forchheimer inertial, no-slip boundary conditions, non-uniform
porosity, and also thermal dispersion effects. Chen et al. (Chen et al. 1992) obtained
numerical solutions for mixed convective thermally-dispersive flow through a fluid-saturated
porous medium with power-law variation in the wall temperature utilizing a single parameter
= [1+(Rax/Pex)0.5]1 (where Rax and Pex denote the local Rayleigh and local Peclet numbers,
respectively) to assess the entire mixed convection regime from the pure forced convection
limit ( = 1) to the pure free convection limit ( = 0). They showed that non-Darcian and
thermal dispersion effects have a major effect on velocity profiles, temperature and heat
transfer rates from the vertical surface. Murty et al. (Murty et al. 1994) used a penalty finite
element method to simulate the free convection heat transfer around a cylinder embedded in a
non-Darcian porous medium using the Brinkman and Brinkman-Forchheimer porous model
for Rayleigh number ranging between 0.04 and 200. Takhar et al. (Takhar et al. 2007)
obtained finite element solutions for viscoelastic flow past a porous plate in a Darcy-

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82 V. R. Prasad et al.

Forchheimer porous medium. Bg et al. (Bg et al. 2008a) extended this study to consider
heat transfer in a viscoelastic fluid-saturated Darcy-Forchheimer regime. Bg et al. (Bg et al.
2008b) used network simulation to study Forchheimer inertial drag and also thermal
stratification effects on natural convection boundary layer flow from a continuously-moving
surface in a highly porous medium. Very recently Zueco et al. (Zueco et al. 2009) analyzed
the effects of Forchheimer drag and first order chemical reaction on combined heat and mass
transfer in boundary layer flow from a cylinder in non-Darcian porous media. These studies
assumed the fluid to be electrically non-conducting. However numerous applications exist of
magnetohydrodynamic flow, heat and mass transfer in porous media. Magnetic materials
processing, geophysical convection and blood flow control are several examples. Geindreau
and Auriault (Geindreau and Auriault 2009) derived the tensorial filtration law in rigid porous
media for steady-state slow magnetohydrodynamic viscous Newtonian flow, deriving the
seepage law under a magnetic field by upscaling the flow at the pore scale. Using multiple-
scale expansions for finite Hartmann number they showed that the macroscopic mass flow
and electric current are coupled and both functions of the macroscopic gradient of pressure
and the electric field and also showed that the filtration law is an extended form of Darcy's
law with a supplementary term proportional to the electric field. Ni et al. (Ni et al. 1993) have
studied two-dimensional hydromagnetic convection in porous media using the Darcy model.
Takhar and Bg (Takhar and Bg 1997) obtained numerical solutions for mixed convective
flow in a Darcy-Brinkman-Forchheimer porous medium showing that increasing Hartmann
number and Forchheimer parameter both decelerates the flow. Chamkha (Chamkha 1997)
studied numerically the inertial drag and Hall current effects on hydromagnetic natural
convection boundary layer flow in thermally-stratified porous media. Hydromagnetic
stagnation point convection in a porous medium with heat generation or absorption was
discussed by Rydin et al. (Rydin et al. 1998). Al-Nimr and Hadr (Al-Nimr and Hadr 1999)
obtained analytical solutions for fully developed magnetohydrodynamic free convection flow
in open-ended vertical porous channels for a range of boundary conditions. Yih (Yih 2000)
analyzed computationally the influence of Forchheimer drag, viscous dissipation, Ohmic
heating and heat source on natural magneto-convection flow over an isoflux permeable sphere
in a porous medium. Mansour and El-Shaern (Mansour and El-Shaern 2001) used a
perturbation method to study Joule dissipation and thermal radiation effects on hydromagnetic
free convection flows in porous media for the case of an isothermal surface, a uniform heat
flux surface, a plane plume and flow generated from a horizontal line energy source on a
vertical adiabatic surface. Mahmud and Fraser (Mahmud and Fraser 2004) studied entropy
generation in laminar magneto-hydrodynamic natural convection heat transfer through a
Darcian fluid-saturated porous cavity with magnetic force acting along the direction of the
gravity force. Damseh (Damseh 2006) studied mixed magneto-convection with thermal
radiation effects in a Darcian porous medium for both buoyancy-aiding flow and buoyancy
opposing flow. Afify (Afify 2007) considered inertial drag, variable viscosity, Hartmann
Darcy number and thermal stratification effects on free convective hydromagnetic non -
Darcian flat plate flow with power-law surface temperature using an exponential function to
simulate the wall effect on porosity variation. Al-Odat and Damseh (Al-Odat and Damseh
2008) investigated the effects of viscous dissipation and Joule heating on unsteady non-Darcy
micropolar magnetohydrodynamic convection flow from an infinite permeable, moving plate
embedded in a saturated porous medium. El-Kabeir et al. (Kabeir et al. 2008) used a group
theoretic method to analyze Ergun number inertial porous effects on combined magneto-
hydrodynamic non-Newtonian heat and mass transfer from an impermeable horizontal
cylinder in a porous medium with thermal radiation effects. Several studies have also
addressed specifically the hydromagnetic convection flow from a sphere. Chamkha and Al-

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 Mathematical Modelling of Buoyancy-Driven Magneto-Convective Heat and Mass Transfer 83

Mudhaf (Chamkha and Al-Mudhaf 2004) obtained numerical solutions for coupled thermal
convection and species diffusion from a porous sphere with thermal radiation flux. Molla et
al. (Molla et al. 2006) examined the effects of heat generation on steady hydromagnetic
convection flow from a sphere with uniform heat flux. El-Kabeir et al. (El-Kabeir et al. 2007)
the second level local nonsimilarity method to investigate thermal dispersion and
Forchheimer inertial impedance effects on free convection hydromagnetic flow from a
permeable sphere embedded in a variable porosity medium. Very recently Bg et al. (Bg et
al. 2009a) used network simulation to elucidate Hartmann number, Darcian drag,
Forchheimer resistance and heat source/sink effects on hydromagnetic natural convection
boundary layer flow from a sphere to a non-Darcian porous medium. All the above studies
neglected Soret/Dufour effects. Such phenomena are significant when density differences
exist in the flow regime. The Soret effect refers to mass flux produced by a temperature
gradient and the Dufour effect refers to heat flux produced by a concentration gradient. Soret
and Dufour effects are important for intermediate molecular weight gases in coupled heat and
mass transfer in binary systems, often encountered in chemical process engineering. When
species are introduced at a surface in a fluid domain, with a different (lower) density than the
surrounding fluid, both Soret (thermo-diffusion) and Dufour (diffuso-thermal) effects can
become influential. Weaver and Viskanta (Weaver and Viskanta 1991) investigated
numerically the influence of species inter-diffusion, Soret and Dufour effects on the free
convection heat and mass transfer in a cavity showing that species inter-diffusion reduces the
overall heat transfer, but boosts the mass transfer through the cavity for specific geometrical
aspect ratios. They also showed that Soret diffusion can supplement total mass flux through
the cavity by more than 10% and that heat transfer due to Dufour effects is comparable to that
by heat conduction. Harstad and Bellan (Harstad and Bellan 1998) have developed a novel
model for simulating isolated fluid drop entry of a single compound immersed into another
compound in finite, quiescent surroundings at supercritical conditions including both Soret
and Dufour effects with applications in liquid oxygen-hydrogen mixtures in rocket chambers.
Coelho and Silva Telles (Coelho and Silva Telles 2002) have investigated coupled heat and
mass transfer in Graetz flow between parallel plates with Soret and Dufour effects. For
saturated porous media, the phenomenon of cross diffusion is further complicated due to
interaction between the fluid and the porous matrix and also because accurate values of the
cross-diffusion coefficients are not available. In the present study we present a new model for
hydromagnetic free convection heat and mass transfer from an isothermal sphere to a Darcy-
Forchheimer porous medium in the presence of Soret and Dufour effects. The well-tested and
validated local nonsimilarity method developed originally by Sparrow et al. (Sparrow et al.
1970) is employed to solve the transformed boundary layer equations.

2 MATHEMATICAL MODEL

Consider the steady, laminar, two-dimensional, incompressible, electrically-conducting,

buoyancy-driven convection heat and mass transfer flow form a permeable isothermal sphere
embedded in a porous medium. Fig. 1 shows the flow model and coordinate system. Here x is
measured along the surface of the sphere, y is measured normal to the surface, respectively
and r is the radial distance from symmetric axis to the surface. r a sin x a , a is the radius
of the sphere. Both the sphere and the fluid are maintained initially at the same temperature.
Instantaneously they are raised to a temperature Tw ( T ) and concentration Cw ( C ) which
remain unchanged. Following Sparrow et al. (Sparrow et al. 1965), we assume the Dufour

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84 V. R. Prasad et al.

effect may be described by a second order concentration derivative with respect to the
transverse coordinate in the energy conservation equation, and the Soret effect by a second
order temperature derivative in the concentration equation. The fluid properties are assumed
to be constant except the density variation in the buoyancy force term. Ohmic dissipation and
induced magnetic field effects are neglected i.e. magnetic Reynolds number is assumed to be
very small. Electrical field is also absent and magnetic field is of such magnitude that Hall
and ionslip effects are not invoked. Under the usual Bousinessq and boundary layer
approximations, the equations for mass continuity, momentum and energy can be written as
follows:

(ru ) (rv)
0 (1)
x y

u u x x 2u B02
u v g (T T ) sin g * (C C ) sin 2 u u Bu 2 (2)
x y a a y K

T T 2T D K 2C
u v 2 m T (3)
x y y cs c p y 2

C C 2C D K 2T
u v Dm 2 m T (4)
x y y Tm y 2

The boundary conditions are defined as follows:

y 0: u 0, v Vw , T Tw , C Cw
y : u 0 , T T , C C , C C (5)

where u and v denote the velocity components in the x - and y - directions respectively, K
and B are the respective permeability and the Forchheimer inertial drag coefficient of the
porous medium, is the kinematic viscosity, and * are the coefficients of thermal
expansion and concentration expansion, respectively, T and C are the temperature and
concentration, respectively, is the electrical conductivity, B0 is the externally imposed
radial magnetic field (i.e. applied in the y -direction), is the density, Dm is the mass
diffusivity, c p is the specific heat capacity, cs is the concentration susceptibility, is the
thermal diffusivity, Tm is the mean fluid temperature, K T is the thermal diffusion ratio, T is
the free stream temperature, C is the free stream concentration and Vw is the uniform
blowing/suction velocity at the sphere surface. In the momentum equation (2), the fifth term
on the right hand side is the porous medium Darcian drag force representing pressure loss
due to the presence of the porous medium. The sixth term on the same side is the inertial drag
force (also referred to as the Forchheimer impedance) which accounts for additional pressure
drop resulting from inter-pore-mixing appearing at high velocities. The stream function is
defined by ru (r ) y and rv (r ) x , therefore, the continuity equation is

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 Mathematical Modelling of Buoyancy-Driven Magneto-Convective Heat and Mass Transfer 85

automatically satisfied. Proceeding with the analysis we introduce the following

dimensionless variables:

x
(6.1)
a
y
4 Gr (6.2)
a

f ( , ) (6.3)
4 Gr
T T
( , ) (6.4)
Tw T
C C
( , ) (6.5)
Cw C
g (Tw T )a3
Gr (6.6)
2
Substituting equation (6) into equations (1) to (4), we obtain:

sin f f
N M
1
f 1 cot ff (1 ) f 2 f f f
Da
(7)

// f
1 cot f / Du f / / (8)
Pr

f
1 cot f Sr / / f / / (9)
Sc

The transformed dimensionless boundary conditions are:

0: f 0, f f w , 1, 1,
: f 0, 0, 0 (10)

In the above equations, the primes denote the differentiation with respect to , the
dimensionless radial coordinate. Ba is the local inertia coefficient (Forchheimer
K Gr *(Cw C )
parameter), Da is a Darcy parameter, N is the concentration to
a 2
(Tw T )
c p
thermal buoyancy ratio parameter, Pr is the Prandtl number, Sc is the Schmidt
k Dm
D K (C C ) D K (T T )
number, Du m T w is the Dufour number, Sr m T w is the Soret
cs c p (Tw T ) Tm (Cw C )
number, M B02 a 2 Gr is the magnetic parameter, f w Vw a 4 Gr is the
blowing/suction parameter and Gr is the Grashof (free convection) parameter.

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86 V. R. Prasad et al.

f w Vw a 4 Gr is the blowing/suction parameter and Gr is the Grashof (free convection)

parameter. fw <0 for Vw > 0 (the case of injection), and f w 0 for Vw 0 (the case of
suction). Of course the special case of a solid sphere surface corresponds to fw= 0. The
engineering design quantities of physical interest include the skin-friction coefficient, Nusselt
number and Sherwood number, which are given by:

C f a Gr f ( , 0)
2 34
(11a)

Nu
4
( , 0) (11b)
Gr

Sh
4
( , 0) (11c)
Gr

3 LOCAL NONSIMILARITY SOLUTIONS

We now obtain approximate solutions to the nonlinear two point boundary value problem
defined by equations (7) to (9) with boundary conditions (10) based on the local similarity
and local nonsimilarity methods (LNM) introduced originally by Sparrow et al. (Sparrow et
al. 1970). This method has also been implemented extensively in transport phenomena
problems. Gorla et al. (Gorla et al. 1996) studied mixed thermal convection boundary layers
in a stratified porous medium with dispersion effects using LNM. Bg et al. (Bg et al.
2009b) studied the coupled momentum, thermal and magnetic boundary layer flow in forced
convection flow from a horizontal surface using LNM. Bg et al. (Bg et al. 2009c) have also
analyzed recently the hydromagnetic natural convection heat and mass transfer from a
stretching surface to a saturated porous medium with Soret and Dufour effects using LNM.
Bg et al. (Bg et al. 2009d) have further studied reactive heat and mass transfer from an
inclined solar collector surface with Soret and Dufour effects included, using LNM. LNM is
therefore an extremely versatile technique. For the first level of truncation the terms and
derivatives in equations (7) to (9) can be neglected. The governing equations for the first level
of the truncation are therefore:

1 /
f ///
ff // f /2
M f 0 (12)
Da

//
f / Du // 0 (13)
Pr

//
f / Sr // 0 (14)
Sc

with boundary conditions:

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 Mathematical Modelling of Buoyancy-Driven Magneto-Convective Heat and Mass Transfer 87

f ,0 0, f ' ,0 f w , ,0 1, ,0 1
(15)
f ' , 1, , 0, , 0

For the second level of truncation, we introduce:

f
F , , (16)

and restore all of the neglected terms in the first level of truncation. Thus, the governing
equations for the second level of truncation are:

sin 1
f ///
(1 cot ) ff // (1 ) f /2
( N ) M f
/

Da
[ f / F / f // F ] (17)

//
(1 cot ) f / Du // [ f / / F ]
Pr (18)

//
(1 cot ) f / Sr // [ f / / F ]
Sc (19)

under the boundary conditions:

f ,0 0, f ' ,0 f w , ,0 1, ,0 1
(20)
f , 1,
'
, 0, , 0

The introduction of the three new dependent variables F ,G, in the problem requires three
additional equations with appropriate boundary conditions. This can be obtained by
differentiating equations (17) to (19) with respect to and neglecting the terms
F , and . This generates three new equations (omitted for brevity) with

the corresponding boundary conditions:

F ,0 0, F ' ,0 0, ,0 1, ,0 0
(21)
F , 0,
'
, 0, , 0

The coupled non-linear differential equations (12) to (14), (17) to (19) and those generated by
differentiation of (17) to (19) with the boundary conditions (15), (20), and (21) respectively
are solved computationally using the fourth-order Rung-Kutta method with a shooting
technique (Bg et al. 2009b; Bg et al. 2009c; Bg et al. 2009d). The step size 0.05 is
used to obtain the numerical solution with five-decimal place accuracy as the criterion of

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88 V. R. Prasad et al.

convergence. We note that multiple solutions are not possible with the present boundary value
problem owing to the prescription of specific boundary conditions.

4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

To validate the present solutions we have provided some comparison with the earlier non-
magnetic, purely fluid solutions of Huang and Chen (Huang and Chen 1987), as shown in
table 1. Excellent correlation has been achieved. Clearly the Nusselt number function
decreases with in table 1.

1
Table1: Comparison of present solutions for Nu Gr 4 with N = 0, M = 0, = 0, Da ,
Du = 0 and Sr = 0 and the results reported by Huang and Chen [42] with Pr = 0.7.

In the graphical numerical computations we have prescribed the following values for the
dimensionless thermophysical parameters (unless otherwise indicated): Da = 0.1, = 0.1, Pr
= 0.7 (air), Sc = 0.25, Du = 0.2 [i.e. SrDu = 0.05], fw =0.5, M = 1, N = 1,Gr = 10 which
represents physically buoyant non-Darcian case of hydrogen diffusing in an aerodynamic
boundary layer through highly porous media with surface fluid suction, Soret and Dufour
effects and weak Forchheimer quadratic and hydromagnetic drag present. In all computations
we desire the variation of f/, and versus (radial coordinate) for the velocity, temperature
and species diffusion boundary layers. We also present several distributions for
Nu Sh
C f a Gr f ( , 0) , 4 ( , 0) and 4 ( , 0 )versus tangential
2 34

Gr Gr
transformed coordinate, as a simulation of skin friction function, Nusselt number function
and Sherwood number function. The values of Sr and Du have been selected to ensure that the
product Sr Du is constant, assuming that the mean temperature is constant. Figures 2 to 4
illustrate the variation of dimensionless velocity (f/), temperature () and concentration ()
with transformed radial () and tangential () coordinates. Velocity is clearly decreased with
distance into the boundary layer, decaying to zero in the free stream. Velocity falls sharply
from the wall. With increasing distance along the sphere surface ( ) from the lower stagnation
point ( ~0) velocity is however increased for all values of i.e. flow is accelerated in the

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 Mathematical Modelling of Buoyancy-Driven Magneto-Convective Heat and Mass Transfer 89

tangential direction but decelerated in the radial direction. Temperature is similarly reduced
with radial coordinate () and increased substantially with an increase in tangential coordinate
(). The increase in temperature is more profound over the same increase in , compared with
the velocity distribution. Temperature profiles also become less parabolic with larger values
i.e. the temperature decays more gradually from the maximum at the sphere surface to the
edge of the boundary layer (free stream). Concentration is also decreased as we progress
from the sphere surface through the boundary layer in the radial direction. Again with
increasing concentration values are elevated; for higher the profiles become
approximately linear decays.

Figure 1: Physical Model and Coordinate Figure 2: f versus for various values
System

Figure 3: versus for various values Figure 4: versus for various values

Figures 5 to 7 show the effect of the Darcy number (Da) on dimensionless velocity (f/),
temperature () and concentration () with transformed radial coordinate () at a location
K Gr
close to the lower stagnation point ( = 0.1). Da for a fixed value of the sphere
a2
radius, a, and free convection parameter, Gr (Grashof number) is directly proportional to
permeability, K, of the porous regime. In the momentum conservation equation (7), the
1 /
Darcian drag term, f , is inversely proportional to Da. Increasing Da increases the
Da

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90 V. R. Prasad et al.

porous medium permeability and simultaneously decreases the Darcian impedance since
progressively less solid fibers are present in the regime. The flow is therefore accelerated for
higher Da values causing an increase in the velocity, f /, as shown in figure 5. Maximum
effect of rising Darcy number is observed at intermediate distance from the sphere surface
around ~ 1. We note that the profiles all correspond to a location some distance from the
lower stagnation point on the sphere at = 0.5. Conversely temperature, , depicted in figure
6 is opposed by increasing Darcy number. The presence of fewer solid fibers in the regime
with increasing Da, inhibits the thermal conduction in the medium which reduces distribution
of thermal energy. The regime is therefore cooled when more fluid is present and values in
the thermal boundary layer are decreased. Profiles for both velocity and temperature are
smoothly asymptotic decays to the free stream indicating that excellent convergence (and
stability) is obtained with the numerical method. Velocity boundary layer thickness will be
increased with a rise in Da and thermal boundary layer thickness reduced. Concentration
values () are also reduced with increasing Darcy number (Da) as seen in figure 7.

Figure 5: f versus for various Da values Figure 6: versus for various Da values

Figure 7: versus for various Da values

In figure 8 the response of temperature field, , to Prandtl number (Pr) is shown. Higher Pr
values (e.g. Pr = 7 is accurate for water) correspond to reduced thermal conductivity of the
fluid and boundary layer thickness is considerably reduced. Smaller Pr fluids (e.g. Pr = 0.02
for liquid metal) have higher thermal conductivities and in such fluids thermal energy diffuses
faster from the sphere surface causing an increase in thermal boundary layer thickness. As
such temperature is reduced with an increase in Pr. Profiles also become more less linear for
higher Pr. The rapid plummet in temperature occurs very near to the sphere surface for very
high Prandtl number. A much slower decay is associated with very low Prandtl number.

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 Mathematical Modelling of Buoyancy-Driven Magneto-Convective Heat and Mass Transfer 91

In figures 9 to 11, the distributions of dimensionless velocity (f/), temperature () and

concentration () with transformed radial coordinate () are presented. Increasing suction (fw
> 0) causes an adherence of the boundary layer flow to the sphere surface and decelerates
flow i.e. reduces velocity. The converse response is sustained with an increase in injection
i.e. blowing (fw < 0). Clearly therefore suction can be utilized as an excellent flow control
mechanism. Infact with strong suction, flow reversal is induced since f values become
negative. For the solid sphere case, fw = 0, flow reversal does not occur although flow
velocities are much smaller than with strong injection present. In all cases velocities are
minimum at the surface of the sphere and increase slowly into the boundary layer peaking in
the free stream. Temperature () on the other hand, as depicted in figure 10, is strongly
increased with suction but decreased with injection throughout the boundary layer, in
consistency with blowing techniques used in high speed aerodynamics which help to reduce
boundary layer temperatures. Curvature of temperature profiles is reversed from a parabolic
pattern to a monotonic decay for suction and injection, respectively. Concentration, , as
shown in Fig. 11, is similarly reduced with injection (fw = -0.5, -1) and increased with suction
(fw = 0.5, 1) since introduction of more fluid via the sphere surface into the boundary layer
(injection) will increased fluid volume and reduce concentration of species occupying the
volume (and vice versa with suction). As with temperature profiles, suction and injection
cases possess opposite curvatures although to a much less degree than in the temperature case.
Effectively therefore velocity boundary layer thickness is increased with injection whereas
thermal and concentration boundary layer thicknesses are reduced considerably with
injection. The opposite effect is apparent with suction. These trends concur with several other
similar studies (in the absence of Soret and Dufour effects) including Chamkha and Al-
Mudhaf (Chamkha and Al-Mudhaf 2004), Weaver and Viskanta (Weaver and Viskanta
1991) and Coelho and Silva Telles (Coelho and Silva Telles 2002).

Figure 8: versus for various values Figure 9: f versus for various fw values

Figure 10: versus for various fw Figure 11: versus for various fw values
values
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92 V. R. Prasad et al.

Figure 12 shows the profiles of concentration, , with radial coordinate for various Schmidt
numbers (Sc). Concentration () is reduced strongly and continuously throughout the
boundary layer, with increasing Sc. Sc quantifies the relative effectiveness of momentum and
mass transport by diffusion. Greater Sc values correspond to lower chemical molecular
diffusivity of the parent fluid so that less diffusion of the species occurs in the regime.
Concentration boundary layer thicknesses will therefore be reduced. For low Sc fluids, greater
species diffusion occurs and concentration boundary layer thickness is increased. For Sc = 1,
the concentration and velocity boundary layers will have approximately the same thickness
i.e. species and momentum will be diffused at the same rates. With lower Sc values (0.25
corresponds to hydrogen diffusing in air, for example), the decay of concentration from the
sphere surface is more controlled; for increasing values of Sc, the profiles descend more and
more steeply and concentration falls faster from the surface to a short distance into the
boundary layer regime. We note that in figure 12, since Pr Sc, the thermal and species
diffusion regions are of different extents.

Figure 12: versus for various Sc values

The influence of the concentration-to-thermal-buoyancy ratio parameter, N, on dimensionless

velocity (f/), temperature () and concentration function () with radial coordinate () are
shown in figures 13 to 15. N = 0 (not plotted) indicates that thermal and species buoyancy
forces are both absent. For N > 0, thermal and species buoyancy forces aid each other. N = 1
implies that both buoyancy forces are of the same order of magnitude. A rise in N from 0.1
through 0.5, 1, 5 to 10 induces a retarding effect on the flow in the porous regime i.e.
velocities are decreased. In figure 14 increasing N (thermal and concentration buoyancy
forces assisting each other), decreases temperatures in the regime i.e. cools the boundary layer
regime. A similar pattern is computed for the concentration distribution, in figure 15, where
we observe that values decrease markedly with a positive increase in N. Aiding buoyancy
forces (N > 0) therefore inhibit both energy and species diffusion in the boundary layer
regime. An increase in magnetic field parameter, M, is observed to strongly reduce the
velocity in the regime. Maximum velocity corresponds to M = 0 i.e. electrically non-
conducting heat and mass transfer. The presence of a transverse magnetic field in the opposite
direction to the radial coordinate induces a Lorentz hydromagnetic drag which acts in the
tangential direction. This force, M f / , impedes the flow and reduces velocities i.e.
decreases the hydrodynamic boundary layer thickness. Although not plotted, temperature will
be increased and thermal boundary layer thickness also boosted with increasing M values.

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 Mathematical Modelling of Buoyancy-Driven Magneto-Convective Heat and Mass Transfer 93

Figure 13: f versus for various N values Figure 14: versus for various N values

Figure 15: versus for various N values Figure 16: f versus for various M values

Figures 17 and 18 depict the distribution of temperature () and concentration function ()

with radial coordinate () for various combinations of the Dufour number (Du) and Soret
number (Sr). An increase in Du causes a distinct rise in temperature. The parameter, Du,
arises in the energy conservation equation (8) Du // , embodying the contribution of
concentration gradients to heat diffusion. Conversely the Soret number increasing reduces
temperature values. Temperature profiles all descend smoothly from the sphere surface to the
free stream. In figure 18, an increase in Dufour number (Du) is observed to considerably
reduce concentration values whereas the opposite effect is caused with increasing Soret
number, Sr. Sr arises in the second order derivative, Sr // , in the species diffusion equation
(9). For Sr = 5.0 (i.e. > 1.0) a considerable concentration overshoot occurs near the sphere
surface. No such temperature overshoot is computed in figure 17 for Du > 1.0.

Figure 17: versus for various Du and Figure 18: versus for various Du and
Sr values Sr values

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94 V. R. Prasad et al.

The effect of the Forchheimer inertial drag parameter, , on dimensionless velocity (f/),
temperature () profiles is shown in figures 19 and 20. The Forchheimer drag force, is a
second order retarding force simulated with the term, ( ) f / 2 , in equation (7). Increasing
values from 0.01 through 0.1, 1, 10, 20 and 50, causes a strong increase in Forchheimer
drag which decelerates the flow i.e. reduces velocities. For higher values of it is expected
that the porous medium flow becomes increasingly chaotic. Temperature, , however is
slightly increased with a rise in Forchheimer parameter, .

Figure 19: f/ versus for various values Figure 20: versus for various values

Finally in figures 21 to 23, the variation of the skin friction coefficient, f //, local Nusselt
number, NuxRex-1/2, and local Sherwood number, ShxRex-1/2, versus tangential coordinate, ,
respectively with the buoyancy parameter, N, are illustrated. Increasing N values clearly
increase skin friction values. Local Nusselt number, NuxRex-1/2, is however considerably
reduced with increasing N values for some distance along the sphere surface; however for
higher values of , the trend is reversed i.e. NuxRex-1/2, is increased sharply with an increase in
N. Local Sherwood number, ShxRex-1/2 , is also reduced with increasing N up to = 1.5
approximately; for higher an increase in N boosts the surface mass transfer rate i.e. increases
ShxRex-1/2 values.

Figure 21: f//(0) i.e. skin friction versus Figure 22: Local Nusselt number versus
for various N values for various N values

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 Mathematical Modelling of Buoyancy-Driven Magneto-Convective Heat and Mass Transfer 95

Figure 23: Local Sherwood number versus

for various N values

5 CONCLUSIONS

We have studied the laminar free convection magnetohydrodynamic heat and mass transfer in
boundary layer flow from an isothermal sphere to a highly porous non-Darcian regime in the
presence of Soret and Dufour effects, using the local nonsimilarity method (LNM) and a
Runge-Kutta shooting technique. A positive increase in concentration-to-thermal-buoyancy
ratio parameter, N, significantly decelerates the flow and also reduces temperature and
concentration values in the porous regime. Increasing N value also reduces local Nusselt
number, NuxRex-1/2, and local Sherwood number, ShxRex-1/2 , with distance around the sphere,
but further from the lower stagnation point (~0), increases both these functions. An
increasein Dufour number (Du) strongly reduce concentration values but increases
temperature values. The opposite trend is computed for an increase in Soret number (Sr). An
increase in Forchheimer parameter, , strongly retards the flow but increases temperature. An
increase in Darcy number, Da, accelerates the flow owing to a rise in regime permeability;
temperatures and concentrations are conversely decreased with increasing Da values. An
increase in magnetic parameter serves to impede the flow. The current study is presently
being extended to consider the influence of Hall currents and also non-Newtonian flow
behaviour on heat and mass transfer characteristics, the results of which will be
communicated in the near future.

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