EFFECT OF WALL CONDUCTION ON NATURAL-CONVECTION FLOW OF MICROPOLAR FLUIDS ALONG A FLAT-PLATE

This article numerically studies the coupling of wall conduction with laminar free convective heat transfer of micropolar fluids along a ver tical flat plate. The governing boundary layer equations along with th e boundary conditions are first cast into a dimensionless form by a no nsimilar transformation and the resulting equations are then solved by the cubic spline collocation method. The effects of the conjugate hea t transfer parameter p, the micropolar material parameter Delta and th e Prandtl number Pr on the how and thermal fields are discussed in det ail. The results clearly indicate that the conjugate heal transfer par ameter has a significant influence on the fluid flow and hear transfer characteristics in comparison with those reported for isothermal flat plate. The interfacial temperature increases monotonically along the streamwise direction. The conjugate heat transfer parameter is to redu ce the solid-liquid interfacial temperature, the skin friction factor, the wall couple stress and the local heat transfer rate. The effect o f wall conduction on the local heat transfer rate is more pronounced f or a system with larger Prandtl numbers or smaller micropolar material parameters. In addition, comparing it to Newtonian fluids, a reductio n in the skin friction factor and the local heal transfer rate is repo rted. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.