Transient natural convection of micropolar fluids in concentric spherical annuli (Q1288695)

This paper studies the transient free convection of micropolar fluids in concentric spherical annuli with isothermal boundary conditions. The authors solve the governing non-dimensional equations numerically using a finite difference method. More specifically, the time-dependent vorticity transport and energy transport equations are solved by employing the alternating direction implicit finite difference technique, while the stream function equation is solved by the successive over-relaxation technique. The numerical code is tested on four different mesh sizes by calculating free convection of air with Prandtl number \(\text{Pr}= 0.7\), Rayleigh number \(\text{Ra}= 1.4\times 10^4\), and for radii ratio equal to 2. The effects of the micropolar parameter on the flow and temperature fields are shown graphically. The authors find that the heat transfer rate of a micropolar fluid is smaller than that of a Newtonian fluid; the most notable difference occurs in the skin friction on the wall.