Numerical study of the combined free-forced convective laminar boundary layer flow past a vertical isothermal flat plate with temperature-dependent viscosity (Q1384746)

The authors present a theoretical study of the combined free-forced convective laminar boundary layer with temperature-dependent viscosity over a vertical isothermal flat plate. To solve the governing equations, a modified and improved numerical scheme is used for locally nonsimilar boundary layer equations. In fact, this method extends the approach proposed by \textit{W. J. Minkowycz} and \textit{E. M. Sparrow} [Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer 22, 1445-1454 (1979; Zbl 0414.76067)] two decades ago for solving local nonsimilar boundary layer equations, by using integrated forms of the governing equations. However, the method used by the present authors deals with differential equations instead of integral equations. At each level of truncation, the coupled, nonlinear system of differential equations is solved by applying the usual finite difference method with central differencing, a tridiagonal matrix manipulation, and an iterative procedure. The present numerical scheme can be easily programmed and has distinct advantages compared to that of Minkowycz and Sparrow with respect to stability, accuracy and convergence rate. Numerical results are given in tabular and graphical form, for the flow field (velocity and temperature), for the Prandtl number \(\text{Pr}= 0.71\) (air) and \(\text{Pr}= 4.608\) (water), and for different values of a viscosity/temperature parameter in the range \(0.2\leq\xi\leq 1.0\). of the convection parameter \(\xi\). The analysis of the results obtained shows that the flow field is appreciably influenced by the viscosity temperature parameter, and hence care must be taken to include the variation of viscosity with temperature in the heat transfer equations.