Boundary layer flows with Dufour and Soret effects: I: Forced and natural convection

Similarity solutions of laminar boundary layer flows in forced and natural convection are examined aiming at the evaluation of the coupled effects of heat and mass transport. Momentum, energy and mass balance equations are simultaneously solved under the assumption of the validity of constitutive equations for the heat and mass fluxes of dilute solutes obeying linear forms in accordance with the thermodynamics of irreversible processes. Forced and natural convection cases depend on different similarity variables, with different exponents for the axial variable and different significant physical properties compose the pertinent dimensionless groups. In the first part of this paper thermal diffusion and diffusion thermo effects are studied for the boundary layer flows about a vertical flat plate in forced and in natural convection, separately. The second part deals with the intermediate cases of non-similar of mixed convection, where it is determined by a one-parameter family of transformations (0???1), which reduce to both extreme cases. The mixed convection will be presented in a forthcoming continuation. A modification of the method of solution based on Adomian's polynomials for the resulting boundary value problem is employed.