Abstract
In this study, magnetohydrodynamic natural convection boundary layer flow of an electrically conducting and viscous incompressible fluid along a heated vertical flat plate with uniform heat and mass flux in the presence of strong cross magnetic field has been investigated. Asymptotic solutions are obtained for small (<< 1) and large (>> 1) values of local Hartmann parameter, xi, through regular perturbation method and matched asymptotic expansion technique, respectively. However, for all values of xi the boundary layer equations are transformed to a suitable form by using the free variable formulation (FVF) as well as the stream function formulation (SFF). The equations obtained through FVF are integrated via direct finite difference method together with Gaussian elimination technique while the others obtained through SFF are integrated numerically via Thomas algorithm. Discussion is carried out for fluids having small Pr << 1. The results obtained for small, large and all xi regimes are examined in terms of shear stress, tau(w), rate of heat transfer, q(w), and rate of mass transfer, m(w), for important physical parameter. Attention has been given to the influence of Schmidt number, Sc, buoyancy ratio parameter, N and local Hartmann parameter, xi on velocity, temperature and concentration distributions and noted that velocity and temperature of the fluid achieve their asymptotic profiles for Sc >= 10.0. [DOI: 10.1115/1.4007130]