Analysis of combined conduction and radiation heat transfer in presence of participating medium by the development of hybrid method

The current study addresses the mathematical modeling aspects of coupled conductive and radiative heat transfer in the presence of absorbing, emitting and isotropic scattering gray medium within two-dimensional square enclosure. A blended method where the concepts of modified differential approximation employed by combining discrete ordinate method and spherical harmonics method, has been developed for modeling the radiative transport equation. The gray participating medium is bounded by isothermal walls of two-dimensional enclosure which are considered to be opaque, diffuse and gray. The effect of various influencing parameters i.e., radiation-conduction parameter, surface emissivity, single scattering albedo and optical thickness has been illustrated. The adaptability of the present method has also been addressed.     

Combined forced and natural convection in laminar film flow

A mathematical model for the flow and heat transfer in a gravity-driven liquid film is presented, in which the strict Boussinesq approximation is adopted to account for buoyancy. A similarity transformation reduces the governing equations to a coupled set of ordinary differential equations. The resulting two-parameter problem is solved numerically for Prandtl numbers ranging from 1 to 1000. Favourable buoyancy arises when the temperatureT _w of the isothermal surface is lower than the temperatureT ₀ of the incoming fluid, and the principal effects of the aiding buoyancy are to increase the wall shear and heat transfer rate. For unfavourable buoyancy (T _w>T ₀), the buoyancy force and gravity act in opposite directions and the flow in the film boundary layer decelerates, whereas the friction and heat transfer are reduced. The observed effects of buoyancy diminish appreciably for higher Prandtl numbers.     

Transient film profile of thin liquid film flow on a stretching surface

In this paper we have studied a non-planar thin liquid film flow on a planar stretching surface. The stretching surface is assumed to stretch impulsively from rest and the effect of inertia of the liquid is considered. Equations describing the laminar flow on the stretching surface are solved analytically. It is observed that faster stretching causes quicker thinning of the film on the stretching surface. Velocity distribution in the liquid film and the transient film profile as functions of time are obtained. (Received: May 4, 2004; revised: February 2/August 24, 2005)     

Thin film flow over a non-linear stretching sheet in presence of uniform transverse magnetic field

A thin viscous liquid film flow is developed over a stretching sheet under different non-linear stretching velocities in presence of uniform transverse magnetic field. Evolution equation for the film thickness is derived using long-wave approximation of thin liquid film and is solved numerically by using the Newton–Kantorovich method. It is observed that all types of stretching produces film thinning, but non-monotonic stretching produces faster thinning at small distance from the origin. Effect of the transverse magnetic field is to slow down the film thinning process. Observed flow behavior is explained physically.     

Boat-like Au nanoparticles embedded mesoporous γ-Al2O3 films: an efficient SERS substrate

A new water-dispersible nanostructure based on magnetite (Fe₃O₄) and usnic acid (UA) was prepared in a well-shaped spherical form by a precipitation method. Nanoparticles were well individualized and homogeneous in size. The presence of Fe₃O₄@UA was confirmed by transmission electron microscopy, Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction. The UA was entrapped in the magnetic nanoparticles during preparation and the amount of entrapped UA was estimated by thermogravimetric analysis. Fabricated nanostructures were tested on planktonic cells growth (minimal inhibitory concentration assay) and biofilm development on Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), Enterococcus faecalis (E. faecalis) and Gram-negative Escherichia coli (E. coli), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) reference strains. Concerning the influence of Fe₃O₄@UA on the planktonic bacterial cells, the functionalized magnetic nanoparticles exhibited a significantly improved antimicrobial activity against E. faecalis and E. coli, as compared with the Fe₃O₄ control. The UA incorporated into the magnetic nanoparticles exhibited a very significant inhibitory effect on the biofilm formed by the S. aureus and E. faecalis, on a wide range of concentrations, while in case of the Gram-negative microbial strains, the UA-loaded nanoparticles inhibited the E. coli biofilm development, only at high concentrations, while for P. aeruginosa biofilms, no inhibitory effect was observed. The obtained results demonstrate that the new water-dispersible Fe₃O₄@UA nanosystem, combining the advantages of the intrinsic antimicrobial features of the UA with the higher surface to volume ratio provided by the magnetic nanocarrier dispersible in water, exhibits efficient antimicrobial activity against planktonic and adherent cells, especially on Gram-positive strains.     

Thin-film flow over a nonlinear stretching sheet

A thin viscous liquid film flow is developed over a stretching sheet under different nonlinear stretching velocities. An evolution equation for the film thickness, is derived using long-wave approximation of thin liquid film and is solved numerically by using the Newton–Kantorovich method. A comparison is made with the analytic solution obtained in [B. S. Dandapat, A. Kitamura, B. Santra, “Transient film profile of thin liquid film flow on a stretching surface”, ZAMP, 57, 623-635 (2006)]. It is observed that all types of stretching produce film thinning but non-monotonic stretching produces faster thinning at small distance from the origin. The velocity u along the stretching direction strongly depends on the distance along the stretching direction and the Froude number.     

Effects of air-flow and evaporation on the development of thin liquid film over a rotating annular disk

Axisymmetric flow of thin pure liquid film on a spinning horizontal annular disk is studied under the action of air shear at the liquid–air interface and evaporation. The non-linear evolution equation that is obtained by singular perturbation method is solved analytically, for small Reynolds number, by using the method of characteristic and numerically by the use of Newton–Kantorovich method for any Reynolds number. Font breakdown time and its location from the center of the disk is predicted both by analytically and numerically. The result shows that the thinning of the initial film increases as air stress increase, same result is also escalated in presence of evaporation.     

Thin film flow over a non-linear stretching sheet in presence of uniform transverse magnetic field

A thin viscous liquid film flow is developed over a stretching sheet under different non-linear stretching velocities in presence of uniform transverse magnetic field. Evolution equation for the film thickness is derived using long-wave approximation of thin liquid film and is solved numerically by using the Newton–Kantorovich method. It is observed that all types of stretching produces film thinning, but non-monotonic stretching produces faster thinning at small distance from the origin. Effect of the transverse magnetic field is to slow down the film thinning process. Observed flow behavior is explained physically.     

Two-layer film flow on a rotating disk: A numerical study

Development of thin two-layer film over a uniformly rotating disk is studied numerically under the assumption of planar interface and free surface. Similarity transformation is applied to transform the Navier-Stokes equations into a set of coupled non-linear, unsteady partial differential equations. This set of equations are solved numerically by using the finite-difference technique. It is observed that the rate of film thickness varies at different time zone depending on the rate of rotational speed of the disk. A physical explanation is provided to justify this anomalous behaviour. It is observed that, smaller thickness on the top layer enhance the initial rate of film thinning. But the overall effect of density, viscosity and the initial film thickness ratio are found to be insensitive to the final film thickness at large time.