Effect of Melting on Mixed Convection Heat and Mass Transfer in a Non-Newtonian Fluid Saturated Non-Darcy Porous Medium

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the influence of melting on mixed convection heat and mass transfer from vertical flat plate in a non-Newtonian fluid-saturated non-Darcy porous medium including the prominent Soret effect. The wall and the ambient medium are maintained at constant but different levels of temperature and concentration such that the heat and mass transfer occurs from the wall to the medium. The Ostwald–de Waele power law model is used to characterize the non-Newtonian fluid behavior. A similarity solution for the transformed governing equations is obtained. The numerical computation is carried out for various values of the nondimensional physical parameters. The variation of temperature, concentration, and heat and mass transfer coefficients with the power law index, mixed convection parameter, inertia parameter, melting parameter, Soret number, buoyancy ratio, and Lewis number is discussed for a wide range of values of these parameters.