An analytical heat transfer assessment and modeling in a natural convection between two infinite vertical parallel flat plates

Abstract

Heat transfer by natural convection occurs in many physical problems and engineering applications such as geothermal systems, heat exchangers, petroleum reservoirs and nuclear waste repositories. These problems and phenomena are modeled by ordinary or partial differential equations. In most cases, experimental solutions cannot be applied to these problems, so these equations should be solved using special techniques. Recently, much attention has been devoted to these methods to construct analytic solutions; such as the perturbation method. Perturbation techniques are dependent upon small parameter. Thus, it is worthwhile developing a new technique independent of small parameter. The Reconstruction of Variational Iteration Method technique is a powerful and convenient algorithm in finding the solutions for the equations. While this method is capable of reducing the size of calculation, it overcomes the difficulty of the perturbation technique or Adomian polynomials by applying Laplace Transform. In this paper an analysis has been performed to study the natural convection of a non-Newtonian fluid between two infinite parallel vertical flat plates and the effects of the non-Newtonian nature of fluid on the heat transfer are studied. In order to compare with exact solution, velocity and temperature profiles are shown graphically. The obtained results are valid with significant accuracy.