Triple diffusive mixed convection from an exponentially decreasing mainstream velocity

•Non-similar solutions modelling triple diffusive mixed convection boundary layer flow is obtained and analyzed.•The thickness of the momentum boundary layer is low for suction and high for blowing when compared to the zero suction case.•The magnitude of the velocity increases with increasing Richardson number.•The species concentration boundary layer thickness decreases with the increase of Schmidt number for both the components. Current paper deals with the numerical study on steady triple diffusive mixed convection boundary layer flow for exponentially decreasing external flow velocity in presence of suction/injection. Such exponentially decreasing external flows have specific applications in diverging channel flows. The temperature of the vertical surface is assumed to be higher compared to the surrounded fluid temperature. In the triple diffusive flow, the solutal components are chosen as Sodium chloride and Sucrose and the components are added in the flow stream from below with various concentration levels. The concentrations of NaCl-Water and Sucrose-Water are assumed to be lower within the free stream compared to the species concentrations of NaCl-Water and Sucrose-Water near the wall. The coupled nonlinear partial differential equations governing the flow, thermal and species concentration fields are transformed using the non-similarity variables and solved numerically by an implicit finite difference scheme with quasi-linearization technique. The effects of wall suction/injection, Richardson number, decelerating parameter, ratio of buoyancy parameters and Schmidt numbers of both the solutal components on the fluid flow, thermal and species concentration fields are analyzed and discussed. Results indicate that the thickness of the momentum boundary layer is lower for suction compared to injection for the buoyancy opposing flow. The decelerating parameter has significant impact on the flow fields. Also, the species concentration boundary layer thickness decreases with the increase of Schmidt numbers and that increases with the ratio of buoyancy parameters for both the species components. Overall, the mass transfer rate is found to increase with Schmidt numbers approximately 10% and 64% for NaCl and Sucrose, respectively.