Transient natural convection flow of thermomicropolar fluid of micropolar thermal conductivity along a nonuniformly heated vertical surface

Abstract

The unsteady free convection boundary layer flow of a thermomicropolar fluid along a vertical plate with effect of micropolar heat conduction has been investigated. The governing equations are transformed into a new form using a method of transformed coordinates. We then use an explicit finite difference scheme to solve the transformed equations. Here, the governing equations have been reduced to the forms that are valid for entire, small, and large time regimes, by using stream-function formulation. The results obtained for the above mentioned three time regimes are compared and found to be in excellent agreement. Moreover, the effects of the physical parameters such as the viscosity parameter, K, and the heat conduction parameter, α are presented in terms of the transient shear stress, couple stress, and surface heat transfer coefficient as well as transient velocity profiles, angular velocity profiles, and temperature profiles. © 2014 Md. Mosharof Hossain et al.