HEAT AND MASS NATURAL-CONVECTIVE FLOW OF MICROPOLAR AND VISCOUS FLUIDS THROUGH A POROUS MEDIUM IN A VERTICAL CHANNEL

The problem of fully-developed natural-convective heat and mass transfer through a porous medium in a vertical channel is investigated analytically. One region is filled with a micropolar fluid and the other region with a viscous fluid or both regions are filled with viscous fluids. Using the boundary and interface conditions, the expressions for linear velocity, micro-rotation velocity, temperature, and mass have been obtained. Numerical results are presented graphically for the distribution of velocity, micro-rotation velocity, temperature, and mass fields for various values of physical parameters such as the ratio of the Grashof number to Reynolds number, viscosity ratio, channel width ratio, conductivity ratio, and micropolar fluid material parameter. It is found that the effect of the micropolar fluid material parameter suppresses the velocity whereas it enhances the micro-rotation velocity. The effect of the ratio of the Grashof number to Reynolds number is found to enhance both the linear velocity and the micro-rotation velocity. The effects of the width ratio and the conductivity ratio are found to enhance the temperature distribution.