Effects of chemical reaction on free convective flow of a polar fluid through a porous medium in the presence of internal heat generation

This paper is focused on the study of combined effects of free convective heat and mass transfer on the steady two-dimensional, laminar, polar fluid flow through a porous medium in the presence of internal heat generation and chemical reaction of the first order. The highly nonlinear coupled differential equations governing the boundary layer flow, heat and mass transfer are solved by using two-term perturbation method with Eckert number E as perturbation parameter. The parameters that arise in the perturbation analysis are Eckert number E (viscouis dissipation), Prandtl number Pr (thermal diffusivity), Schmidt number Sc (mass diffusivity), Grashof number Gr (free convection), solutal Grashof number Gm, chemical reaction parameter A (rate constant), internal heat generation parameter Q, material parameters a and P (characterizes the polarity of the fluid), C-f (skin friction coefficient), Nusselt number Nu (wall heat transfer coefficient) and Sherwood number Sh (wall mass transfer coefficient). Analytical expressions are computed numerically. Numerical results for the velocity, angular velocity, temperature and concentration profiles as well as for the skin friction coefficient, wall heat transfer and mass transfer rate are obtained and reported graphically for various conditions to show interesting aspects of the solution. Further, the velocity disnibution of polar fluids is compared with the corresponding flow problems for a viscous (Newtonian) fluid and found that the polar fluid velocity is decreasing. (c) 2007 Published by Elsevier Masson SAS.