Unsteady mixed convection boundary-layer flow on a vertical surface in a porous medium (Q1973010)

The authors give a detailed analysis of unsteady mixed convection from a vertical plate embedded in a fluid-saturated porous medium, which occurs as the surface temperature is instantaneously changed from the ambient temperature to a constant temperature, and the process is driven by a uniform stream flow. Transient solutions are presented over a wide range of physically relevant buoyancy parameters. Both the cases where buoyancy forces are favouring and opposing the free stream are considered. First, the authors obtain analytical solutions of the governing boundary-layer equations and for the final steady state. Then a numerical solutions of full boundary-layer equations is given for the whole transient from \(t=0\) to the steady state. The authors are able to match significantly different profiles at the time when the forward integration approach breaks down, and when the solution at large times exhibits a smooth evolution around the transition time.