Unsteady mass transfer in mixed convective heat flow from a vertical plate embedded in a liquid-saturated porous medium with melting effect

This paper numerically studies the transient mass transfer in mixed convective heat flow with melting effect from a vertical plate in a liquid saturated porous medium in the presence of aiding external flow. The governing equations are transformed into the non-dimensional form by using pseudo similarity coordinate (zeta) and dimensionless time (4). The resulting two dimensional boundary value problem (BVP) is then solved by the method of lines (MOLs) with the central finite difference and Newton's iteration to obtain the entire numerical solutions for all transient process from the initial stage (xi=0) to the final state (xi=1). The results show the rate of dynamic mass transfer at the solid-liquid interface is reduced with increasing the melting strength. In addition, the response time and the rate of the dynamic mass transfer for aiding buoyancy are respectively shorter and faster than those for opposing buoyancy from the transient molecular diffusion to the steady mixed convection in a porous medium with melting effect. (c) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.