Magnetohydrodynamic Unsteady Free Convection

The unsteady free convection flow from an infinite vertical plate, under the action of a transverse magnetic field, is analysed in the case when the plate temperature undergoes a thermal transient. The solution is obtained by Laplace transform technique. The applied field is found to induce a wave‐dominated flow pattern. The flow within the viscous and thermal boundary layers is also considered. At all stages of the motion the shearing stress at the plate is found to be larger than the corresponding value in the non‐magnetic case, although the viscous part is smaller.