Unsteady convective boundary layer flow of a viscous fluid at a vertical surface with variable fluid properties

    Authors

    K. Vajravelu; K. V. Prasad;C. O. Ng

    Comments

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    Abbreviated Journal Title

    Nonlinear Anal.-Real World Appl.

    Keywords

    Unsteady boundary layers; Variable thermal conductivity; Thermal; radiation; Heat transfer; Mixed convection; NONUNIFORM HEAT-SOURCE; LAMINAR MIXED CONVECTION; POWER-LAW FLUID; STRETCHING SHEET; MASS-TRANSFER; THERMAL-CONDUCTIVITY; FLAT-PLATE; VISCOELASTIC FLOW; MICROPOLAR FLUID; SUCTION; Mathematics, Applied

    Abstract

    In this paper we present numerical solutions to the unsteady convective boundary layer flow of a viscous fluid at a vertical stretching surface with variable transport properties and thermal radiation. Both assisting and opposing buoyant flow situations are considered. Using a similarity transformation, the governing time-dependent partial differential equations are first transformed into coupled, non-linear ordinary differential equations with variable coefficients. Numerical solutions to these equations subject to appropriate boundary conditions are obtained by a second order finite difference scheme known as the Keller-Box method. The numerical results thus obtained are analyzed for the effects of the pertinent parameters namely, the unsteady parameter, the free convection parameter, the suction/injection parameter, the Prandtl number, the thermal conductivity parameter and the thermal radiation parameter on the flow and heat transfer characteristics. It is worth mentioning that the momentum and thermal boundary layer thicknesses decrease with an increase in the unsteady parameter. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

    Journal Title

    Nonlinear Analysis-Real World Applications

    Volume

    14

    Issue/Number

    1

    Publication Date

    1-1-2013

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    455

    Last Page

    464

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000309784600033

    ISSN

    1468-1218

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