A note on the boundary value problem arising in free convection in porous media

By similarity transformation and governing equations of free convection on a heated vertical plate embedded in porous medium are reduced to coupled nonlinear equations. The equations are numerically integrated using the boundary conditions at the plate and at ‘infinity’. Assuming that the plate is subjected to a prescribed temperature [1–3] or to a prescribed heat flux [4, 5], the boundary value problems have been solved independently. These researchers seem to have not noted that the solutions for the two cases are dependent on each other. In the present note we consider yet another thermal boundary condition, namely, radiation boundary condition [6] at the plate and show that the solutions for the three cases are dependent and one can pass from one solution to the other easily.