CONJUGATE HEAT-TRANSFER OF A PLATE FIN IN A 2ND-GRADE FLUID-FLOW

A conjugate heat transfer problem of a second-grade viscoelastic fluid past a plate fin was studied. Governing equations, including heat con duction equation of a fin, and continuity equation, momentum equation and energy equation of a second-grade fluid, were analyzed by a combin ation of a series expansion method, the similarity transformation and a second-order accurate finite-difference method. Solutions of a stagn ation flow (beta = 1.0) at the an tip and a flat-plate how (beta = 0) on the fin surface were obtained by a generalized Falkner-Skan flow de rivation. These solutions were used to iterate with the heat conductio n equation of the fin to obtain distributions of the local convective heat transfer coefficient and the fin temperature. Ranges of dimension less parameters, the Prandtl number (Pr), the elastic number (E) and t he conduction-convection coefficient (N-alpha) are from 0.1 to 100, 0. 001 to 0.3, and 0.5 to 2.0, respectively. Results indicated that elast ic effect in the flow can increase the local heat transfer coefficient and enhance the heat transfer of a fin. Also, same as results from Ne wtonian fluid flow and conduction analysis of a fin, a better heat tra nsfer is obtained with a larger N-proportional to and Pr. (C) 1997 Els evier Science Ltd.