INTRODUCTORY REMARKS

All materials show deformation under the action of forces. If the

deformation in the material increases continually without limit under the action
of shearing forces, however small, the material is called fluid. This continous
deformation under the action of forces is manifested in a tendency of fluids to
flow.

Fluid are of two types :

1. Newtonian Fluid

2. Non-Newtonian Fluid

Newtonian fluids are those which satisfy the Newton’s Law of Viscosity

du
  .Some common examples of such fluids are air, water, mercury etc.
dy

A real fluid which does not obey the Newton’s law of viscosity is known
as a non-Newtonian fluid. Some examples are butter, condensed milk, paste,
molten plastics etc.

The study of fluid dynamics is of great practical importance. The flow of

fluid affects man and machine, field and factory, sky, ocean and atmosphere,
in general. This branch of Mathematics is a blend of Physics on Mathematics
based upon theory and experiment.

This branch starts with modeling. The compatibility and suitability of the
model to represent the physical problem or the real world problem is to be
ensured. The solution of the Mathematical equation along with its existence is
a challenging area.

Now the motivation of this thesis is to study some problems relating to

Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluid flows with or without free convection and
mass transfer and many other forcing forces due to magnetic field,
gravitational field and porosity of the medium etc.
 Though the study is theoretical, still the results obtained are important
due to their applications in many fields of engineering and natural sciences
dealing with subjects such as oil recovery, soil mechanics, catalytic chemical
reaction, material absorption on solid, polymer property measurement and
agriculture sciences.

The first chapter of my thesis is the general introduction which includes

historical background, types of fluids, different fluid models used in the thesis,
introduction to rotating fluid flows, flow through porous media, heat and mass
transfer, basic equations of magnetic field and mathematical models used in
the thesis. Moreover, the literature survey related to the present work has also
been done.

In the 2nd chapter, the problem entitled ‘Heat and Mass transfer effects
on a radiative and dissipative visco-elastic MHD flow past a porous stretching
sheet’ has been studied. Pantokratores (2008) has considered the problem
related to this topic. He has confined his study only to viscous flow with free
convection effect. The novelty of the present study is to consider the visco-
elastic model, heat loss due to radiation, energy dissipation due to viscous
resistance and reacting species with first order destructive chemical reaction.

The validity of the present study has been tested by discussing the
result of the author mentioned above. The solution of the coupled non-linear
partial differential equation has been solved analytically by employing a
special function, namely, Kummar’s function.

As far as possible, we have avoided numerical methods to solve the

non-linear equation as because numerical methods besets with accumulation
or propagation of error and computational limitations.

Therefore, in the present chapter, we have applied Kummar’s function

to solve the boundary value problem. The solution of the equations gives the
expressions for velocity, temperature and concentration. The elastic
parameter, Prandtl number, magnetic parameter, porosity parameter, radiation
parameter, suction, Eckert number, heat source parameter, mass transfer
coefficient and chemical reaction parameter affect the flow characteristic.
Presence of elasticity and magnetic field decreases the transverse velocity

whereas the permeability of the medium and suction parameter enhances it.

One striking result is to record that presence of elasticity of the fluid,

permeability of the medium, magnetic field all reduce the skin friction which is

a desirable finding. Therefore, the present fluid model is favorable to the

application in the stretching of polymer sheet because its need requires less

effort to stretch.

In Chapter-3, we have considered the problem entitled “Effect of Hall

current and chemical reaction on MHD flow along an accelerated porous flat

plate with internal heat absorption/ generation”. The motivation of this paper

is to extend the work of Rath et al. (2010). They have studied the flow, heat

and mass transfer characteristic when the solid surface is subject to

exponential acceleration. But we have studied the same problem by imposing

a time dependent linearly varying motion on the plate. Though, there is no

much noticeable originality of the paper, still then the method of solution is

quite interesting which has been taken care of by the special function Hh n (x).

Comparing the results with those of Rath et al. (2910), it is pointed out that

there is no crest found in the velocity profile but in the present case sudden

rise in the velocity is marked in case of heat generation which delays

spanwise the attainment of free stream velocity. As regard to the effect of skin

friction, Hall current reduces it in the presence of suction as well as heat

generation. All other parameters such as buoyancy parameter, magnetic

parameter and mass transfer coefficient parameters are not favorable for

reducing the skin friction.

 In Chapter-4, we have discussed the problem entitled “Three

dimensional free convection MHD flow in a vertical channel through a porous

medium with heat source and chemical reaction”. The specialty of the present

study is to account for the diffusion-thermo effect on free convective flow in

the presence of magnetic field and chemical reaction.

The flow considered in a vertical channel is again a viscous one. Jha

and Ajibade (2010) considered the diffusion thermo-effect in their study but

they have not considered a conductive fluid and also they have not

considered the effect of chemical reaction in their study. The method of

solution of the coupled non-linear partial differential equation which governs

the flow, heat and mass transfer phenomena are solved by applying Laplace

transformation technique. In the present study, though it is not possible to

bring the Jha’s case as a particular case of our study, still we have obtained

many interesting results of practical importance. It is not possible to derive as

a particular case because of the appearance of magnetic parameter in the

denominator which cannot be assigned the value zero. Fluid with low thermal

diffusivity leads to the thickness of the velocity boundary layer. Heavier

species, mostly, aqueous solution gives rise to flow reversal. Further,

destructive reaction in the presence of heavier species leads to oscillation in

the flow. It is quite interesting to note that sharp rise and fall of temperature is

attributed to low diffusivity and high Dufour effect. Dufour effect enhances

both steady and unsteady motion. Another remarkable result regarding skin

friction is that magnetic field as well as sustentation parameter reduces the

frictional drag at both the plates but mass transfer coefficient and Dufour

effect enhance the frictional drag at the plates for steady and unsteady flow.
Therefore, the inclusion of chemical reaction, Dufour effect and foreign

species are not favorable for reducing the skin friction at the plates.

In chapter-2, we have studied the problem entitled ‘Free convective

MHD flow through porous media of a Rotating Oldroyd fluid past an infinite

vertical porous plate with Heat and Mass Transfer”. In this chapter we have

considered non-Newtonian fluid of Oldroyd B model which represents many

real world fluid of industrial importance. The main interest of the paper is to

study the effect of non-Newtonian parameters such as stress relaxation and

strain retardation time on the flow phenomena in the presence of forcing

forces such as magnetic field, porosity of the medium in a rotating frame. The

effect rotational parameter is also to be analyzed. As regard to the boundary

condition, we have considered a temperature gradient on the plate. We have

adopted special technique by combining two momentum equations into one

by introducing the velocity in the form U = u + iv. The solution is straight

forward and computation has been done by assigning numerical values to the

parameters.

We have arrived at many interesting results. Two elastic parameters

such as stress relaxation and strain retardation time have opposite effects on

the secondary velocity. Fluid with high Prandtl number i.e., with larger

kinematic viscosity opposes the fluid motion. Coming to the effect on skin

friction, it is noted that buoyancy effect enhances both the skin friction but

rotation and elastic parameters oppose each other.

Chatper 6, deals with “Three Dimensional Free Convection MHD flow

in a vertical channel with Heat source and chemical reaction”. Three

dimensional free convective flow in a vertical channel embedded in a porous

medium in the presence of heat source and chemical reaction has been

studied. The interest of this paper is to include the mass transfer effect of the

flow characteristic which has not been taken care of in Guria et al. The mass

transfer phenomena occur simultaneously with heat transfer in a fluid flow in

many geographical situations and also in industrial application. Therefore, the

necessity of inclusion of mass transfer phenomena arises. Thus, the problem

deals with the heat, mass and momentum transfer phenomena in the

presence of forcing forces such as buoyancy effect due to convection. Lorentz

force due to magnetic field and resistive force due to porous medium. The

method of solution to the coupled non-linear equations is based upon

similarity solution which is imposed on three components of velocity which

reveals the partial differential equation to non-linear ordinary differential

equation. Then, we look for an analytical solution by introducing a perturbation

method where Reynold’s number is the perturbation parameter. Obviously the

results obtained out of the present study are valid only for small Reynold’s

number and hence for slow flow where the viscous force dominates over the

inertia. One striking result is that the presence of mass transfer prevents the

cross flow w-component of velocity to assume negative. The chemical

reaction parameter fails to affect other two components of the velocity.