Abdelazem, Finite difference solution of radiation effects on MHD unsteady free-convection flow on vertical porous plate

An analysis is performed to study radiation effects on magnetohydrody-namic (MHD) unsteady free-convection flow past a semi-infinite verti-cal plate with variable surface temperature in the presence of transversal uniform magnetic field. The boundary layer equations are transformed into a linear algebraic system by an implicit finite-difference method. A parametric study is performed to illustrate the influence of radiation pa-rameter, magnetic parameter, and Prandtl number on the velocity and temperature profiles. The numerical results reveal that the radiation has significant influences on the velocity and temperature profiles, skin fric-tion, and Nusselt number. The results indicate that the velocity, tempera-ture, and local and average skin friction increase as the radiation param-eter increases, while the local and average Nusselt numbers decrease as the radiation parameter increases. 1