Unsteady free convection MHD flow past a vertical cylinder with heat and mass transfer

Heat and mass transfer characteristics and the flow behavior on the MHD flow past a vertical cylinder are studied. The equations of conservation of mass, momentum, energy and concentration which govern the flow and heal and mass transfer are obtained. The nondimensional governing equations are solved by an efficient, more accurate, unconditionally stable and fast converging implicit scheme. The unsteady effects of material parameters such as Prandtl number, Schmidt number, buoyancy ratio parameter and magnetic parameter on the velocity, temperature and concentration are discussed. The local and average skin-friction, Nusselt number and Sherwood number are also presented graphically. The numerical predictions have been compared with the existing information in the literature and good agreement is obtained. (C) 2000 Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS.