Development of flow and heat transfer in the vicinity of a vertical plate embedded in a porous medium with viscous dissipation effects

In this paper, the effects of viscous dissipation on unsteady free convection from an isothermal vertical flat plate in a fluidsaturated porous medium are investigated. The Darcy-Brinkman model is employed to describe the flow field. A new model of viscous dissipation is used for the Darcy-Brinkman model of porous media. The simultaneous development of the momentum and thermal boundary layers is obtained by using a finite-difference method. Boundary layer and Boussinesq approximation have been incorporated. Numerical calculations are carried out for various parameters entering into the problem. Velocity and temperature profiles as well as the local friction factor and local Nusselt number are displayed graphically. It is found that as time approaches infinity, the values of the friction factor and heat transfer coefficient approach steady state. © 2012 by Begell House, Inc.