Free convection boundary-layer flow along a vertical surface in a porous medium with Newtonian heating

In this paper the steady free convection boundary-layer flow along a vertic al surface embedded in a porous medium with Newtonian heating is investigat ed. The mathematical problem reduces to a pair of coupled partial different ial equations for the temperature and the streamfunction, and full numerica l, asymptotic and matching solutions are obtained for a wide range of value s of the coordinate along the plate. The results for the temperature profil es on the plate and in the convective fluid are presented. A comparison bet ween the full finite-difference solution and the small and large series exp ansion solutions illustrates that the full numerical solution is accurate. Furthermore, a matching closed form of solution for the scaled temperature on the wall is fitted to the theoretical results and this will be useful in numerous engineering practical applications. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd . All rights reserved.