A study of natural convection in non-Newtonian fluids induced by a vertical wavy surface

기복을 이루는 수직벽에서 비뉴턴유체의 자연대류에 관한 연구

A numerical investigation of natural convection flow along irregular vertical surfaces is reported. A transformation method is applied to the problem of natural convection under the assumption of a large Grashof number. A vertical wavy surface is used as an example to demonstrate the advantages of the transformation method, and to show the heat transfer mechanism near such surfaces. Surface non-uniformities on the boundary layer flow induced by a constant was temperature, semi-infinite surface are investigated. Also the effects of Prandtl number, flow index, and surface amplitude in Non-Newtonian fluids are discussed. When possible, the comparison of the numerical results shows a good agreement. The amplitude is proportional to the amplitude of a wavy surface. The results demonstrate that the local heat flux along a wavy surface is smaller than that of a flat surface. The frequency of the wavy surface is half that of the local heat transfer rate. The amplitude of the local Nusselt number gradually decreases downstream where the natural convection boundary layer grows thick.