Simultaneous heat and mass transfer in natural convection about an isothermal vertical plate

The homotopy analysis method has been used to derive a highly accurate analytic solution for simultaneous natural convection and mass transfer from an isothermal vertical plate. Velocity, temperature, and concentration profiles are presented for a fixed Prandtl number of 0.71 and for Schmidt numbers of 0.5, 5, and 10 and for the buoyancy ratio of 0 (pure mass transfer), 0.5 (simultaneous heat and mass transfer), and 1 (pure heat transfer). The present results corroborate well with the numerical results reported in other research literature on the problem. The auxiliary parameter in the homotopy analysis method is derived by using the averaged residual error concept which significantly reduces the computational time. The use of optimal auxiliary parameter provides a superior control on the convergence and accuracy of the analytic solution.