MIXED CONVECTION OVER A HORIZONTAL PLATE - SELF-SIMILAR AND CONNECTING BOUNDARY-LAYER FLOWS

The boundary-layer flow over a horizontal plate is considered. In case that the heat transfer is limited to the leading edge of the plate tw o similarity solutions exist, if the buoyancy parameter is above a cri tical value. By an asymptotic expansion with respect to buoyancy param eters near the critical value it is shown that steady-state (non-simil ar) solutions connecting both similarity solutions exist. Finally a sl owly varying transient solution is constructed. The downstream behavio r of the perturbation determines which steady flow will be attained.