VARIABLE HEAT SOURCE AND WALL RADIATION EFFECTS ON BOUNDARY LAYER CONVECTION FROM AN INCLINED PLATE IN NON-DARCIAN POROUS MEDIUM

A semi analytical investigation is performed to analyze the thermal convection flow with a radiation flux and a variable internal heat generation along an inclined plate embedded in a saturated porous medium. The flow in the porous medium is modeled with the Darcy-Brinkman law taking into account the convective term, while the temperature field is obtained from the energy equation. These governing equations with the boundary conditions are first cast into a dimensionless form by using a unique similarity transformation and the resulting coupled differential equations are then solved numerically by a computational program based on the fifth order Runge-Kutta scheme with shooting iteration technique. The obtained results are presented in dimensional and dimensionless form. The effects of the main governing parameters, such as permeability, radiation, internal heat generation, inclination angle, Grashof number, Prandtl number, fluid suction on the isothermal lines distributions, the local Nusselt number and the local skin-friction profiles are examined and the physical aspect of the problem is discussed. The comparison with previously published work shows excellent agreement.