Nonsimilar solutions for mixed convection on a wedge embedded in a porous medium

The problem of mixed convection on a wedge in a saturated porous medium is analyzed using the Darcy flow formulation and three different methods of solution. Nonsimilar solutions are obtained for several wedge angles. The nonsimilarity technique is applied to the boundary layer formulation, and the finite element method is used in both formulations. It is shown that both formulations produce results that agree well for Pe = 1 and uniform wall temperature in the range 0.1 < Ra/Pe < 100. The local and average Nusselt numbers are calculated for several geometries. Relative to the progress documented in the literature, new solutions are presented for m = 1 /3, 1/2 and 1 (i.e., wedge half angles 7 = 45, 60, and 90). It is shown that the overall heat-transfer rate is the largest when the wedge angle is zero, and the walls are oriented vertically.