Combined influence of cross-diffusion and variable fluid properties on free convection flow past a vertical cone

The free convective flow of an incompressible viscous fluid over an isothermal vertical cone with variable viscosity and variable thermal conductivity is examined in the presence of the Soret and Dufour effects. As thermal and solutal boundary conditions at the cone's surface, the constant temperature and concentration (WTC) and constant heat and mass flux (HMF) cases are taken into account. The successive linearization method is applied to linearize a system of nonlinear differential equations that describes the flow under investigation. The numerical solution for the resulting linear equations is attained by means of the Chebyshev spectral method. The obtained numerical results are compared and found to be in good agreement with previously published results. The impact of significant parameters on the heat and mass transfer rates is evaluated and presented graphically for the WTC and HMF situations. In both cases, the Soret number increases the skin friction coefficient and rate of heat transfer while decreasing the Sherwood number. With an increase in the Dufour parameter, the coefficient of skin friction and Sherwood numbers increase while the heat transmission rate decreases.