Mixed convection in non-Newtonian fluids along a vertical plate in a liquid-saturated porous medium with melting effect

A boundary-layer analysis is presented for the problem of mixed convection in a flow of a non-Newtonian fluid from a vertical plate in a liquid-saturated porous medium in the presence of the melting effect. Aiding and opposing external flows are considered. The power-law model for non-Newtonian fluids is used. After a suitable coordinate transformation, the governing boundary-layer equations are reduced to nonlinear coupled differential ones which are solved numerically by employing an implicit finite difference scheme. A discussion of the effect of the viscosity index and melting parameter on the surface heat transfer rate, as well as on the temperature and velocity distributions, is presented. It is shown that melting decreases the local Nusselt number. A comparison with previous published results at various values of the governing parameters for a Newtonian fluid reveals an excellent agreement. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York.