CONJUGATE FREE-CONVECTION FROM A HORIZONTAL SURFACE IN A POROUS-MEDIUM

In this paper a detailed analysis of the conjugate free convection from a horizontal flat plate of finite length, which is embedded in a porous medium, under the boundary-layer approximation is considered. The problem is reduced to a pair of coupled parabolic partial differential equations for the temperature and the streamfunction and full numerical and asymptotic solutions are obtained for a wide range of values of x, the coordinate along the plate. The results for the temperature and velocity profiles on the plate and in the convective fluid are presented. A comparison between the finite-difference solution and the small and large series expansion solutions illustrate that the full numerical solution is accurate.