Natural convection of a viscoelastic fluid

The influence of elasticity and shear thinning viscosity on the temperature distribution and heat transfer in natural thermal convection is discussed. The numerical investigations are based on a four-parameter Oldroyd constitutive equation, which represents the typical fluid response of dilute solutions and melts. It was found that especially the second normal-stress difference affects the heat transfer mechanism.     

Transient non-Darcy free convection between parallel vertical plates in a fluid saturated porous medium

Transient non-Darcy free convection between two parallel vertical plates in a fluid saturated porous medium is investigated using the generalized momentum equation proposed by Vafai and Tien. The effects of porous inertia and solid boundary are considered in addition to the Darcy flow resistance. Exact solutions are found for the asymptotic states at small and large times. The large time solutions reveal that the velocity profiles are rather sensitive to the Darcy number Da when Da<1. It has also been found that boundary friction alters the velocity distribution near the wall, considerably. Finite difference calculations have also been carried out to investigate the transient behaviour at the intermediate times in which no similarity solutions are possible. This analytical and numerical study reveals that the transient free convection between the parallel plates may well be described by matching the two distinct asymptotic solutions obtained at small and large times.Nomenclature C empirical constant for the Forchheimer term - f velocity function for the small time solution - F velocity function for the large time solution - g acceleration due to gravity - Gr* micro-scale Grashof number - H a half distance between two infinite plates - K permeability - Nu Nusselt number - Pr Prandtl number - t time - T temperature - u, v Darcian velocity components - x, y Cartesian coordinates - effective thermal diffusivity - coefficient of thermal expansion - porosity - dimensionless time - similarity variable - dimensionless temperature - viscosity - kinematic viscosity - density - the ratio of heat capacities     

Transient conduction in a plate cooled by free convection

An approximate analytical solution of the one-dimensional conduction equation with a natural convection boundary condition is presented. The solution is based on the heat balance integral technique and possesses considerable utility. The accuracy of the solution is tested by comparison with an exact solution for a range of linear forced convection problems and with a Crank-Nicolson solution for a range of nonlinear free convection problems. It is demonstrated that significant differences can occur between the temperature responses of a solid cooled by either free of forced convective flow at similar Biot numbers.     

Transient free‐surface flow of a viscoelastic fluid in a narrow channel

The interplay between inertia and elasticity is examined for transient free‐surface flow inside a narrow channel. The lubrication theory is extended for the flow of viscoelastic fluids of the Oldroyd‐B type (consisting of a Newtonian solvent and a polymeric solute). While the general formulation accounts for non‐linearities stemming from inertia effects in the momentum conservation equation, and the upper‐convected terms in the constitutive equation, only the front movement contributes to non‐linear coupling for a flow inside a straight channel. In this case, it is possible to implement a spectral representation in the depthwise direction for the velocity and stress. The evolution of the flow field is obtained locally, but the front movement is captured only in the mean sense. The influence of inertia, elasticity and viscosity ratio is examined for pressure‐induced flow. The front appears to progress monotonically with time. However, the velocity and stress exhibit typically a strong overshoot upon inception, accompanied by a plug‐flow behaviour in the channel core. The flow intensity eventually diminishes with time, tending asymptotically to Poiseuille conditions. For highly elastic liquids the front movement becomes oscillatory, experiencing strong deceleration periodically. A multiple‐scale solution is obtained for fluids with no inertia and small elasticity. Comparison with the exact (numerical) solution indicates a wide range of validity for the analytical result. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effect of the source term on steady free convection boundary layer flows over a vertical plate in a porous medium. Part II

The problem of steady free convection boundary layer over a vertical isothermal impermeable flat plate which is embedded in a fluid-saturated porous medium with volumetric heat generation or absorption is studied in this paper using the Darcy equation model. The case of the externally prescribed source terms S = S(x,y) is considered in this paper. It is shown that the corresponding boundary value problem depends on the sign of the plate temperature, which implies that the source term breaks the usual upflow or downflow symmetry of the free convection problem. Looking for similarity solutions, analytical and numerical solutions of the transformed boundary value problem are obtained for several values of the problem parameters. It is also shown that, contrary to the widely spread opinion, the exponential form of the internal heat generation term is not a necessary requirement of similarity reduction.     

Effect of variable viscosity on non-Darcy free or mixed convection flow on a vertical surface in a fluid saturated porous medium

This paper analyzes the variable viscosity effects on non-Darcy free or mixed convection flow on a vertical surface in a fluid saturated porous medium. The viscosity of the fluid is assumed to be a inverse linear function of temperature. Velocity and heat transfer are found to be significantly affected by the variable viscosity parameter, Ergun number, Peclet number or Rayleigh number.     

MHD effects on free convective flow over moving semi-infinite vertical cylinder with temperature oscillation

Numerical solutions of magnetodynamics(MHD) effects on the free convective flow of an incompressible viscous fluid past a moving semi-infinite vertical cylinder with temperature oscillation are presented.The dimensionless,unsteady,non-linear,and coupled governing partial differential equations are solved by using an implicit finite difference method of the Crank-Nicolson type.The velocity,temperature,and concentration profiles are studied for various parameters.The local skin-friction,the average skin-fr...     

Numerical study of natural convection flow in a vertical slot

The stability of convective motion, generated by a lateral temperature difference across a vertical slot, is studied numerically over a range ofGr=5000 to 1.5 × 10⁵,Pr=0.01 to 10, andA=8,16 and 20. Various cellular flow structures and temperature patterns are illustrated. Several branches of solutions characterized by different numbers of the cells in the flow patterns as well as by both steady and unsteady multicellular patterns are found for low-Prandtl-number fluid in the vertical slot. Meanwhile, the behaviors of the temperature variation and heat transfer are also discussed. The project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (59776011) and by the Returnee from Abroad Funding of Academia Sinica.     

Mixed convection boundary layer flow near stagnation-point on vertical surface with slip

This paper considers the steady mixed convection boundary layer flow of a viscous and incompressible fluid near the stagnation-point on a vertical surface with the slip effect at the boundary. The temperature of the sheet and the velocity of the external flow are assumed to vary linearly with the distance from the stagnation-point. The governing partial differential equations are first transformed into a system of ordinary differential equations, which are then solved numerically by a shooting method. The features of the flow and heat transfer characteristics for different values of the governing parameters are analyzed and discussed. Both assisting and opposing flows are considered. The results indicate that for the opposing flow, the dual solutions exist in a certain range of the buoyancy parameter, while for the assisting flow, the solution is unique. In general, the velocity slip increases the heat transfer rate at the surface, while the thermal slip decreases it.     

Effects of anisotropy on the free convection from a vertical plate embedded in a porous medium

The effects of anisotropy on the steady laminar boundary-layer free convection over a vertical impermeable surface are analysed by using the method of integral relations. If the permeability in the direction orthogonal to the plate is greater than the permeability along the plate, then there is an increase in the temperature field.     

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.     

Mixed convection boundary layer flow of a viscoelastic fluid over a horizontal circular cylinder

The steady mixed convection boundary layer flow of a viscoelastic fluid over a horizontal circular cylinder in a stream flowing vertically upwards is numerically studied for both cases of heated and cooled cylinders. The governing partial differential equations are transformed into dimensionless forms using an appropriate transformation and then solved numerically using the Keller-box method. The comparison between the solutions obtained and those for a Newtonian fluid is found to be very good. Effects of the mixed convection and elasticity parameters on the skin friction and heat transfer coefficients for a fluid having the Prandtl number equal to one are also discussed. It is found that for some values of the viscoelastic parameter and some negative values of the mixed convection parameter (opposing flow) the boundary layer separates from the cylinder. Heating the cylinder delays separation and can, if the cylinder is warm enough, suppress the separation completely. Similar to the case of a Newtonian fluid, cooling the cylinder brings the separation point nearer to the lower stagnation point. However, for a sufficiently cold cylinder there will not be a boundary layer.     

Mixed convection boundary-layer flow over a vertical surface embedded in a porous medium

In this paper we have numerically investigated the existence and uniqueness of a vertically flowing fluid passed a model of a thin vertical fin in a saturated porous media. We have assumed the two-dimensional mixed convection from a fin, which is modelled as a fixed, semi-infinite vertical surface, embedded in a fluid-saturated porous media under the boundary-layer approximation. We have taken the temperature, in excess of the constant temperature in the ambient fluid on the fin, to vary as  , where is measured from the leading edge of the plate and λ is a fixed constant. The Rayleigh number is assumed to be large so that the boundary-layer approximation may be made and the fluid velocity at the edge of the boundary-layer is assumed to vary as . The problem then depends on two parameters, namely λ and , the ratio of the Rayleigh to Péclet numbers. It is found that when λ>0 (<0) there are (is) dual (unique) solution(s) when is grater than some negative values of (which depends on λ). When λ<0 there is a range of negative value of (which depends on λ) for which dual solutions exist and for both λ>0 and λ<0 there is a negative value of (which depends on λ) for which there is no solution. Finally, solutions for 0<1 and 1 have been obtained.     

Unsteady MHD mixed convection flow over an impulsively stretched permeable vertical surface in a quiescent fluid

The unsteady mixed convection flow of an incompressible laminar electrically conducting fluid over an impulsively stretched permeable vertical surface in an unbounded quiescent fluid in the presence of a transverse magnetic field has been investigated. At the same time, the surface temperature is suddenly increased from the surrounding fluid temperature or a constant heat flux is suddenly imposed on the surface. The problem is formulated in such a way that for small time it is governed by Rayleigh type of equation and for large time by Crane type of equation. The non-linear coupled parabolic partial differential equations governing the unsteady mixed convection flow under boundary layer approximations have been solved analytically by using the homotopy analysis method as well as numerically by an implicit finite difference scheme. The local skin friction coefficient and the local Nusselt number are found to decrease rapidly with time in a small time interval and they tend to steady-state values for t*≥5. They also increase with the buoyancy force and suction, but decrease with injection rate. The local skin friction coefficient increases with the magnetic field, but the local Nusselt number decreases. There is a smooth transition from the unsteady state to the steady state.     

Transient mixed convection flow of a second grade viscoelastic fluid past an inclined backward facing step

The transient mixed convection of a second-grade viscoelastic fluid past an inclined backward facing step was studied numerically. The combined effects of the Reynolds number, the elastic effect, the inclined angle of the flow channel on the reattachment length, and the phenomena of heat transfer are examined during the development of the flow field. The Gauss-Seidal method with successive over relaxation was implemented to solve the stream-vorticity and energy equations. The results indicate that the reattachment length increases to the maximum as the inclined angle increases up to 150° or 180°. At these cases, the point of reattachment is close to the point of the local maximum value of Nu_x or is overshooting it. It is observed that the reattachment length increases as the Reynolds number increases or the elastic coefficient decreases. In the meantime, the contact point of the isotherm on the upper plate moves upward and is close to upstream flow as the inclined angle is around 150°.     

Transient free convection with mass transfer MHD micropolar fluid in a porous plate by the network method

The transient problem of coupled heat and mass transfer of a micropolar fluid in magneto‐hydrodynamic free convection from a vertical infinite porous plate with an exponentially decaying heat generating considering the viscous dissipation and ohmic heating effects is studied. Joule heating must be considered when the viscous dissipation and the Prandtl number are large. The non‐dimensional equations for the conservation of mass, momentum, energy and concentration are solved by means a numerical technique based on electric analogy (network simulation method). This method provides the numerical response of the system by running the network in circuit resolution software with the solution to both transient and steady‐state problems at the same time, and its programming does not require manipulation of the sophisticated mathematical software that is inherent in other numerical methods. The effects of the material parameters, viscous dissipation, internal generation and Joule heating on velocity, angular momentum and temperature fields across the boundary layer are investigated. In addition, the skin‐friction coefficient, couple stress coefficient, Nusselt number and Sherwood number are shown in tabular form. The numerical results for velocity and temperature distributions of micropolar fluids are compared with the corresponding flow problems for a Newtonian fluid. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Free convection from a vertical plate with nonuniform surface heat flux and embedded in a porous medium

An analysis is presented for the calculation of heat transfer due to free convective flow along a vertical plate embedded in a porous medium with an arbitrarily varying surface heat flux. By applying the appropriate coordinate transformations and the Merk series, the governing energy equation is expressed as a set of ordinary differential equations. Numerical solutions are presented for these equations which represent universal functions and several computational examples are provided.     

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.     

Mixed convection effects on heat and mass transfer in a non Newtonian fluid with chemical reaction over a vertical plate

This paper studies mixed convection, double dispersion and chemical reaction effects on heat and mass transfer in a non-Darcy non-Newtonian fluid over a vertical surface in a porous medium under the constant temperature and concentration. The governing boundary layer equations, namely, momentum, energy and concentration, are converted to ordinary differential equations by introducing similarity variables and then are solved numerically by means of fourth-order Runge-Kutta method coupled with double-shooting technique. The velocity, temperature concentration, heat and mass transfer profiles are presented graphically for various values of the parameters, and the influence of viscosity index n, thermal and solute dispersion, chemical reaction parameter χ are observed.