Free-convection boundary-layer flow of a non-Newtonian fluid along a vertical wavy surface

A theoretical analysis of laminar free-convection flow over a vertical isothermal wavy surface in a non-Nevvtonian power-law fluid is considered. The governing equations are first cast into a nondimensional form by using suitable boundary-layer variables that substract out the effect of the wavy surface from the boundary conditions. The boundary-layer equations are then solved numerically by a very efficient implicit finite-difference method known as the Keller-Box method. A sinusoidal surface is used to elucidate the effects of the power-law index, amplitude wavelength, and Prandtl number on the velocity and temperature fields, as well as on the local Nusselt number. It is shown that the local Nusselt number varies periodically along the wavy surface. The wave-length of the local Nusselt number variation is half that of the wavy surface, irrespective of whether the fluid is a Newtonian fluid or a non-Newtonian fluid. Comparisons with earlier works are also made, and the agreement is found to be very good.     

Steady mixed convection flow of Maxwell fluid over an exponentially stretching vertical surface with magnetic field and viscous dissipation

The steady mixed convection flow and heat transfer from an exponentially stretching vertical surface in a quiescent Maxwell fluid in the presence of magnetic field, viscous dissipation and Joule heating have been studied. The stretching velocity, surface temperature and magnetic field are assumed to have specific exponential function forms for the existence of the local similarity solution. The coupled nonlinear ordinary differential equations governing the local similarity flow and heat transfer have been solved numerically by Chebyshev finite difference method. The influence of the buoyancy parameter, viscous dissipation, relaxation parameter of Maxwell fluid, magnetic field and Prandtl number on the flow and heat transfer has been considered in detail. The Nusselt number increases significantly with the Prandtl number, but the skin friction coefficient decreases. The Nusselt number slightly decreases with increasing viscous dissipation parameter, but the skin friction coefficient slightly increases. Maxwell fluid reduces both skin friction coefficient and Nusselt number, whereas buoyancy force enhances them.     

Studies on heat transfer to Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids in agitated vessel

Heat transfer studies to Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids are carried out in a stirred vessel fitted with anchor/turbine impeller and a coil for heating/cooling with an objective of determining experimentally the heat transfer coefficient of few industrially important systems namely castor oil and its methyl esters, soap solution, CMC and chalk slurries. The effect of impeller geometry, speed and aeration is investigated. Generalized Reynolds and Prandtl numbers are calculated using an apparent viscosity for non-Newtonian fluids. The data is correlated using a Sieder–Tate type equation. A trend of increase in heat transfer coefficient with RPM in presence and absence of solids has been observed. Relatively high values of Nusselt numbers are obtained for non-Newtonian fluids when aeration is coupled with agitation. The contribution of natural convection to heat transfer has been accounted for by incorporating the Grashof number. The correlations developed based on these studies are applied for design of commercial scale soponification reactor. Power per unit volume resulted in reliable design of a reactor.     

Numerical investigation of heat transfer and fluid flow characteristics inside a wavy channel

The periodically fully developed laminar heat transfer and fluid flow characteristics inside a two-dimensional wavy channel in a compact heat exchanger have been numerically investigated. Calculations were performed for Prandtl number 0.7, and Reynolds number ranging from 100 to 1,100 on non-orthogonal non-staggered grid systems, based on SIMPLER algorithm in the curvilinear body-fitted coordinates. Effects of wavy heights, lengths, wavy pitches and channel widths on fluid flow and heat transfer were studied. The results show that overall Nusselt numbers and friction factors increase with the increase of Reynolds numbers. According to the local Nusselt number distribution along channel wall, the heat transfer may be greatly enhanced due to the wavy characteristics. In the geometries parameters considered, friction factors and overall Nusselt number always increase with the increase of wavy heights or channel widths, and with the decrease of wavy lengths or wavy pitches. Especially the overall Nusselt number significantly increase with the increase of wavy heights or channel widths, where the flow may become into transition regime with a penalty of strongly increasing in pressure drop. An erratum to this article can be found at     

Heat transfer in magnetohydrodynamic laminar radial channel flow

Heat transfer in the steady axisymetrical laminar source flow of an incompressible electrically conducting fluid between two parallel disks in the presence of a transverse applied magnetic field is analyzed. The energy equation is solved numerically for the temperature distribution, where both Joulean and viscous heating are included. Both local and average Nusselt numbers for the case of constant wall temperature are evaluated. For fluids of moderate and high Prandtl numbers, Nusselt number is seen to be a strong function of both Hartmann number and a heat generation parameter together with a modified Peclet number. However, for fluids of small Prandtl number, Joulean heating and viscous dissipation can be neglected without appreciable error.     

An analysis for forced convection heat transfer from external surfaces to non-Newtonian fluids

A theoretical analysis has been proposed for the forced convection heat transfer from external surfaces immersed in non-Newtonian fluids of the power-law model. The integral treatment previously introduced for Newtonian fluids has been successfully extended to the non-Newtonian fluids over a flat plate and a wedge of an arbitrary included angle. The integral momentum and energy equations are transformed into a pair of characteristic equations, which can readily be solved for the velocity shape factor and the boundary layer thickness ratio, once the exponents in the expressions for the power-law model, free stream velocity and wall temperature variation are specified. It has been also found that an asymptotic expression derived under the assumption of large Prandtl number, is valid practically for all power-law fluids, and hence, can be used for a speedy, and yet accurate estimation of the local heat transfer to non-Newtonian fluids.     

Anomalous predictions of pressure drop and heat transfer in ducts of arbitrary cross-section with modified power law fluids

 The apparent viscosities of purely viscous non-Newtonian fluids are shear rate dependent. At low shear rates, many of such fluids exhibit Newtonian behaviour while at higher shear rates non-Newtonian, power law characteristics exist. Between these two ranges, the fluid's viscous properties are neither Newtonian or power law. Utilizing an apparent viscosity constitutive equation called the “Modified Power Law” which accounts for the above behavior, solutions have been obtained for forced convection flows. A shear rate similarity parameter is identified which specifies both the shear rate range for a given fluid and set of operating conditions and the appropriate solution for that range. The results of numerical solutions for the friction factor–Reynolds number product and for the Nusselt number as a function of a dimensionless shear rate parameter have been presented for forced fully developed laminer duct flows of different cross-sections with modified power law fluids. Experimental data is also presented showing the suitability of the “Modified Power Law” constitutive equation to represent the apparent viscosity of various polymer solutions. Received on 21 August 2000     

Transient free convection of non-Newtonian fluids along a wavy vertical plate including the magnetic field effect

A Prandtl transformation method is applied to study the transient free convection of non-Newtonian fluids along a wavy vertical plate in the presence of a magnetic field. A simple transformation is proposed to transform the governing equations into the boundary-layer equations and solved numerically by the cubic spline approximation. A simple coordinate transformation is employed to transform the complex wavy surface to a vertical flat plate for a constant wall temperature by the numerical method. The effects of the magnetic field parameter, the wavy geometry and the non-Newtonian nature of the fluids on the flow characteristics and heat transfer are discussed in detail.     

Non-uniform heat generation effect on heat transfer of a non-Newtonian power-law fluid over a non-linearly stretching sheet

The effects of non-uniform heat generation/absorption and viscous dissipation on heat transfer of a non-Newtonian power-law fluid on a non-linearly stretching surface have been examined. The governing nonlinear partial differential equations describing the problem are transformed to a system of non-linear ordinary differential equations by using suitable similarity transformation. The transformed system of ordinary differential equations is solved numerically using fourth order Runge-Kutta method with the shooting technique. Graphical solutions for the dimensionless temperature are presented and discussed for various values of the power-law index parameter, the Prandtl number, the heat generation/absorption parameter and the Eckert number. The results show that the local Nusselt number is reduced with increasing the Eckert number or the heat generation parameter, whereas the heat absorption parameter has the effect of enhancing the local Nusselt number.     

The Falkner–Skan Wedge Flows of Power-Law Fluids Embedded in a Porous Medium

The non-Darcy flow characteristics of power-law non-Newtonian fluids past a wedge embedded in a porous medium have been studied. The governing equations are converted to a system of first-order ordinary differential equations by means of a local similarity transformation and have been solved numerically, for a number of parameter combinations of wedge angle parameter m, power-law index of the non-Newtonian fluids n, first-order resistance A and second-order resistance B, using a fourth-order Runge–Kutta integration scheme with the Newton–Raphson shooting method. Velocity and shear stress at the body surface are presented for a range of the above parameters. These results are also compared with the corresponding flow problems for a Newtonian fluid. Numerical results show that for the case of the constant wedge angle and material parameter A, the local skin friction coefficient is lower for a dilatant fluid as compared with the pseudo-plastic or Newtonian fluids.     

GPU accelerated simulations of three-dimensional flow of power-law fluids in a driven cube

Newtonian fluid flow in two- and three-dimensional cavities with a moving wall has been studied extensively in a number of previous works. However, relatively a fewer number of studies have considered the motion of non-Newtonian fluids such as shear thinning and shear thickening power law fluids. In this paper, we have simulated the three-dimensional, non-Newtonian flow of a power law fluid in a cubic cavity driven by shear from the top wall. We have used an in-house developed fractional step code, implemented on a Graphics Processor Unit. Three Reynolds numbers have been studied with power law index set to 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5. The flow patterns, viscosity distributions and velocity profiles are presented for Reynolds numbers of 100, 400 and 1000. All three Reynolds numbers are found to yield steady state flows. Tabulated values of velocity are given for the nine cases studied, including the Newtonian cases.     

Laminar mixed convection in horizontal concentric annuli with non-uniform circumferential heating

 Steady, laminar, mixed convection in the fully developed region of horizontal concentric annuli has been investigated numerically for the case of non-uniform circumferential heating. Two heating conditions were studied, one in which a 180^∘ arc encompassing the top half of inner surface of the inner cylinder is uniformly heated while the bottom half is kept insulated, and the other in which the heated and the insulated surfaces were reversed. The fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics were found to be affected by the heating conditions. For the investigated range of the governing buoyancy parameter, the modified Grashof number (Gr^*), it was found that bottom heating arrangement gives rise to a vigorous secondary flow, with the result that the average Nusselt numbers are much higher than those for pure forced convection. On the other hand, the local Nusselt numbers are nearly circumferentially uniform. In the case of top heating arrangement, a less vigorous secondary flow is induced because of temperature stratification, with average Nusselt numbers that are substantially lower than those for bottom heating and with large circumferential variation of the local Nusselt number. Received on 15 March 2000     

On the diffusion of a chemically reactive species in a convective flow past a vertical plate

A numerical solution of the first-order homogeneous chemical reaction in an unsteady free convective flow past a semi-infinite vertical plate is studied. The dimensionless governing equations are solved by an efficient, more accurate, unconditionally stable, and rapidly converging implicit finite-difference scheme. The effect of various parameters, such as the Prandtl number, Schmidt number, buoyancy ratio parameter, and chemical reaction parameter on flow velocity and temperature is determined. The velocity profiles are in excellent agreement with available results in the literature. The local and average values of skin friction and Nusselt and Sherwood numbers are calculated. The effects of the chemical reaction parameters on these values are discussed for both generative and destructive reactions. Owing to the presence of the first-order chemical reaction, the velocity is found to increase in the generative reaction and to decrease in the destructive reaction.     

Variable viscosity and slip velocity effects on the flow and heat transfer of a power-law fluid over a non-linearly stretching surface with heat flux and thermal radiation

The flow and heat transfer of a non-Newtonian power-law fluid over a non-linearly stretching surface has been studied numerically under conditions of constant heat flux and thermal radiation and evaluated for the effect of wall slip. The governing partial differential equations are transformed into a set of coupled non-linear ordinary differential equations which are using appropriate boundary conditions for various physical parameters. The remaining set of ordinary differential equations is solved numerically by fourth-order Runge–Kutta method using the shooting technique. The effects of the viscosity, the slip velocity, the radiation parameter, power-law index, and the Prandtl number on the flow and temperature profiles are presented. Moreover, the local skin friction and Nusselt numbers are presented. Comparison of numerical results is made with the earlier published results under limiting cases.     

Effect of Viscous Dissipation on the Boundary Layer Flow and Heat Transfer Past a Permeable Stretching Surface Embedded in a Porous Medium with a Second-Order Slip Using Chebyshev Finite Difference Method

This article investigates a theoretical and numerical study for the effect of viscous dissipation on the steady flow with heat transfer of Newtonian fluid toward a permeable stretching surface embedded in a porous medium with a second-order slip and thermal slip. The governing nonlinear partial differential equations are converted into nonlinear ordinary differential equations (ODEs) using similarity variables. The resulting ODEs are successfully solved numerically with the help of Chebyshev finite difference method. Graphically results are shown for non-dimensional velocities and temperature. The effects of the porous parameter, the suction (injection) parameter, Eckert number, first- and second-order velocity slip parameter, the thermal slip parameter and the Prandtl number on the flow and temperature profiles are presented. Moreover, the local skin-friction and Nusselt numbers are presented. A comparison of numerical results is made with the earlier published results under limiting cases.     

Mixed convection boundary layers in the stagnation-point flow toward a stretching vertical sheet

An analysis is made for the steady mixed convection boundary layer flow near the two-dimensional stagnation-point flow of an incompressible viscous fluid over a stretching vertical sheet in its own plane. The stretching velocity and the surface temperature are assumed to vary linearly with the distance from the stagnation-point. Two equal and opposite forces are impulsively applied along the x-axis so that the wall is stretched, keeping the origin fixed in a viscous fluid of constant ambient temperature. The transformed ordinary differential equations are solved numerically for some values of the parameters involved using a very efficient numerical scheme known as the Keller-box method. The features of the flow and heat transfer characteristics are analyzed and discussed in detail. Both cases of assisting and opposing flows are considered. It is observed that, for assisting flow, both the skin friction coefficient and the local Nusselt number increase as the buoyancy parameter increases, while only the local Nusselt number increases but the skin friction coefficient decreases as the Prandtl number increases. For opposing flow, both the skin friction coefficient and the local Nusselt number decrease as the buoyancy parameter increases, but both increase as Pr increases. Comparison with known results is excellent.     

Entropy generation and natural convection in square cavities with wavy walls

The aim of the present work is to study the entropy generation in the natural convection process in square cavities with hot wavy walls through numerical simulations for different undulations and Rayleigh numbers, while keeping the Prandtl number constant. The results show that the hot wall geometry affects notably the heat transfer rate in the cavity. It has been found in the present numerical study that the mean Nusselt number in the case of heat transfer in a cavity with wavy walls is lower, as compared to heat transfer in a cavity without undulations. Based on the obtained dimensionless velocity and temperature values, the distributions of the local entropy generation due to heat transfer and fluid friction, the local Bejan number, and the local entropy generation are determined and plotted for different undulations and Rayleigh numbers. The study is performed for Rayleigh numbers 10³ < Ra < 10⁵, irreversibility coefficients 10^?4 < φ < 10^?2, and Prandtl numbers Pr = 0.71. The total entropy generation is found to increase with increasing undulation number.     

Unsteady mixed convection heat transfer from tandem square cylinders in cross flow at low Reynolds numbers

A two-dimensional numerical study is carried out to understand the influence of cross buoyancy on the vortex shedding processes behind two equal isothermal square cylinders placed in a tandem arrangement at low Reynolds numbers. The spacing between the cylinders is fixed with five widths of the cylinder dimension. The flow is considered in an unbounded medium, however, fictitious confining boundaries are chosen to make the problem computationally feasible. Numerical calculations are performed by using a finite volume method based on the PISO algorithm in a collocated grid system. The range of Reynolds number is chosen to be 50–150. The flow is unsteady laminar and two-dimensional in this Reynolds number range. The mixed convection effect is studied for Richardson number range of 0–2 and the Prandtl number is chosen constant as 0.71. The effect of superimposed thermal buoyancy on flow and isotherm patterns are presented and discussed. The global flow and heat transfer quantities such as overall drag and lift coefficients, local and surface average Nusselt numbers and Strouhal number are calculated and discussed for various Reynolds and Richardson numbers.     

A unified compatibility method for exact solutions of non-linear flow models of Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids

Criteria are established for higher order ordinary differential equations to be compatible with lower order ordinary differential equations. Necessary and sufficient compatibility conditions are derived which can be used to construct exact solutions of higher order ordinary differential equations subject to lower order equations. We provide the connection to generalized groups through conditional symmetries. Using this approach of compatibility and generalized groups, new exact solutions of non-linear flow problems arising in the study of Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids are derived. The ansatz approach for obtaining exact solutions for non-linear flow models of Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids is unified with the application of the compatibility and generalized group criteria.     

Free convection through conducting non-Newtonian fluids over a thin axisymmetric body

An analysis of free convection heat transfer in electrically conducting power law non-Newtonian fluid over a thin axisymmetric body of constant temperature is carried out. The uniform external magnetic field acts normally to the surface through the induced boundary layer. In view of the fact that most of the non-Newtonian fluids have large Prandtl number, the momentum equation is simplified. The equations of conservation of mass, momentum and energy which govern and describe the flow and heat transfer are solved numerically. The effect of the magnetic field on the velocity, temperature, the coefficient of friction and the Nusselt number are investigated. Numerical results are tabulated, presented graphically and discussed.