FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS OF UNSTEADY MHD FREE CONVECTION FLOW PAST AN INFINITE VERTICAL PLATE WITH SORET, DUFOUR, THERMAL RADIATION AND HEAT SOURCE

A study has been carried out to analyze the combined effects of Soret (thermal-diffusion) and Dufour (diffusion-thermo) on an unsteady magnetohydro dynamic free convection flow past an infinite vertical plate in a porous medium in presence of thermal radiation and heat source. A uniform magnetic field acts perpendicular to the porous surface. Energy equation takes into account of viscous dissipation, thermal radiation and Dufour effects. The governing differential equations are transformed into a set of non-linear coupled partial differential equations and solved using similarity analysis with numerical technique using appropriate boundary conditions for various physical parameters. The dimensionless governing equations are solved numerically using Galerkin finite element method. Favorable comparisons with previously published work on various special cases of the problem are obtained. The effects of various physical parameters on the dimensionless velocity, temperature and concentration profiles are presented graphically. In addition, the local values of the Skin-friction coefficient, Nusselt number and Sherwood number are also shown in tabular form.