SOME TRANSFORMATIONS FOR NATURAL-CONVECTION ON A VERTICAL FLAT-PLATE EMBEDDED IN POROUS-MEDIA WITH PRESCRIBED WALL TEMPERATURE

This study analyzes transformation for boundary layer equations for tw o-dimensional steady natural convection along a vertical flat plate em bedded in porous media. Three different boundary conditions (uniform, power law, and exponential variation), which result in different wall temperature, are identified and processed. Based on the distance along flat plate, governing equations after transformation divide the flow pattern into three subregions. These three subregions characterize the distinct relationship among patterns for pure fluid flow, non-Darcian flow expressed in nonsimilar equations, and pure porous flow. It is a lso found that similarity solution exists for the whole flow region as the wall temperature distribution is in linear variation and the iner tia resistance is without consideration.