Th. Hsu et Ck. Chen, NATURAL-CONVECTION OF MICROPOLAR FLUIDS IN A RECTANGULAR ENCLOSURE, International journal of engineering science, 34(4), 1996, pp. 407-415
The steady, laminar, natural convection flow of a micropolar fluid In
an enclosure has been investigated numerically. The transport equation
s for vorticity, angular momentum, and energy are solved with the aid
of the cubic spline collocation method. Parametric studies of the effe
cts of microstructure on the fluid flow and heat transfer in the enclo
sure have been performed. The flow phenomenon is discussed for a serie
s of Rayleigh numbers and aspect ratios. A similar Row pattern as obta
ined for a Newtonian fluid is also shown in the present problem. The h
eat transfer rate of micropolar fluids is found to be smaller than tha
t of the Newtonian fluid. The streamline distribution and heat transfe
r characteristics obtained in the present work are prove to be in agre
ement with the earlier studies.