Heat and Mass Transfer due to Natural Convection along a Wavy Vertical Plate with Opposing Thermal and Solutal Buoyancy Effects

In the present work, a numerical analysis is performed of the combined effects of (opposing) thermal and solutal buoyancy in the presence of a wavy (vertical) surface. The boundary layer equations and related boundary conditions are discretized using a finite volume scheme and solved numerically using a Gauss-Seidel algorithm. The influence of the wavy geometry (in terms of related wavelength L and amplitude a) and the buoyancy ratio N on the local Nusselt and Sherwood numbers and on the skin-friction coefficient are studied in detail. Results show that when Pr < Sc, negative values of the buoyancy parameter, N tend to increase the local Nusselt number and the skin-friction coefficient. An increase in the parameter a leads to a reduction in the heat and mass transfer and the local skin-friction coefficient. For N < 0 and Pr > Sc, the flow is completely perturbed; the thickness of the mass boundary layer is larger than that of the thermal boundary layer.