FREE-CONVECTION FROM A HORIZONTAL MOVING SHEET

In this paper the free convection flow through a thin rigid hot sheet moving horizontally out of a slot is considered. It is found that ther e is a similarity formulation of the boundary-layer equations so that the problem reduces to solving a system of coupled ordinary differenti al equations with suitable boundary conditions. This system of equatio ns is solved numerically for various values of the Prandtl number, Pr, namely 0.45 less than or equal to Pr less than or equal to 10 000. It is found that for the flow under the sheet there is a reverse flow re gion near the sheet for small values of Pr, whilst in the case of the flow above the sheet there is no reverse flow region for any value of Pr we have investigated. For the flow under the sheet an asymptotic be haviour, which is valid near the minimum value of the Prandtl number f or which it is possible to obtain a numerical solution, is proposed.