MHD free convection flow of a micropolar fluid past a vertical porous plate

The present work is concerned with the unsteady flow of an incompressible, viscous, conducting micropolar fluid, through a porous medium, over an infinite plate that is started into motion in its own plane by an impulse. A uniform magnetic field acts in a direction perpendicular to the plate. The governing equations are solved using a state space approach and the inversion of the Laplace transform is carried out, using a numerical approach. The technique is applied to a heated-plate problem and to a problem pertaining to a plate under uniform heating. Numerical results concerning temperature (for both problems), velocity, and microrotation are given and are illustrated graphically.