Combined heat and mass transfer in MHD free convection from a vertical surface with ohmic heating, chemical reaction and viscous dissipation

The problem of combined heat and mass transfer of an electrically conducting fluid in MHD natural convection adjacent to a vertical surface is analyzed, taking into account the effects of Ohmic heating, chemical reaction and viscous dissipation. An approximate numerical solution for the steady laminar boundary-layer flow over a wall of the surface in the presence of species concentration and mass diffusion has been obtained by solving the governing equations using numerical technique. The fluid is assumed to be viscous and incompressible. Numerical calculations are carried out for different values of dimensionless parameters and an analysis of the results obtained shows that the flow field is influenced appreciably by the chemical reaction, magnetic effect and the buoyancy ratio between species and thermal diffusion at the wall of the surface. (author)