Free convective flow of a couple stress fluid through a vertical porous channel in the presence of a transverse magnetic field

Abstract

Nonlinear oberbeck convection of a couple stress fluid in a vertical porous channel in the presence of transverse magnetic field is investigated in this paper. Analytical solution is obtained using the perturbation technique for vanishing values of the buoyancy parameter. Numerical solution of the nonlinear governing equations is obtained using the finite difference technique to validate the results obtained from the analytical solutions. The influence of the physical parameters on the flow, such as couple stress parameter, Hartmann number, temperature parameter, porous parameter and buoyancy parameter are evaluated and presented graphically. A new approach is used to analyse the flow for strong, weak and comparable porosity cases. It is found that increase in porous parameter, couple stress parameter, Hartmann number and temperature parameters decrease the velocity considerably.