Nonsimilar boundary layer analysis of double-diffusive convection from a vertical truncated cone in a porous medium with variable viscosity (Q1026281)

This paper deals with the steady double-diffusive boundary layer convection near a vertical truncated cone embedded in a fluid-saturated porous medium with constant wall temperature and concentration, under the assumption that the viscosity of the fluid varies as an inverse linear function of the temperature. Using appropriate non-dimensional variables, the boundary layer equations are transformed into a set of two partial differential equations of parabolic type with the corresponding boundary conditions. The problem involves three basic non-dimensional parameters, namely, \(E\), the viscosity-variation parameter, the Lewis number, \(Le\), and the buoyancy ratio, \(N\). The transformed equations are solved numerically using the cubic spline collocation method. The results obtained for the local Nusselt number are compared with those from the literature when \(E=N=0\), and a very good agreement is found. It is also found that for a porous medium saturated with Newtonian fluid having viscosity proportional to an inverse linear function of temperature, higher values of viscosity-variation parameter lead to a decrease in the viscosity of fluid flow, thus increasing the fluid velocity as well as the local Nusselt number and the local Sherwood number. In our opinion, this paper is very well done, and it is of interest to the researchers working in the area of porous media.