Effects of Ramped Wall Temperature on Unsteady Two-Dimensional Flow Past a Vertical Plate with Thermal Radiation and Chemical Reaction

The interaction of free convection with thermal radiation of a viscous incompressible unsteady flow past a vertical plate with ramped wall temperature and mass diffusion is presented here, taking into account the homogeneous chemical reaction of first order. The fluid is gray, absorbing-emitting but non-scattering medium and the Rosseland approximation is used to describe the radiative flux in the energy equation. The dimensionless governing equations are solved using an implicit finite-difference method of the Crank-Nicolson type, which is stable and convergent. The velocity profiles are compared with the available theoretical solution and are found to be in good agreement. Numerical results for the velocity, the temperature, the concentration, the local and average skin friction, the Nusselt number and Sherwood number are shown graphically. This work has wide application in chemical and power engineering and also in the study of vertical air flow into the atmosphere. The present results can be applied to an important class of flows in which the driving force for the flow is provided by combination of the thermal and chemical species diffusion effects.