Effect of thermal radiation on conjugate natural convection flow of a micropolar fluid along a vertical surface

Abstract

This article investigates the behavior of conjugate natural convection over a finite vertical surface immersed in a micropolar fluid in the presence of intense thermal radiation. The governing boundary layer equations are made dimensionless and then transformed into suitable form by introducing the non-similarity transformations. The reduced system of parabolic partial differential equations is integrated numerically along the vertical plate by using an implicit finite difference Keller-box method. The features of fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics for various values of micropolar or material parameter, K, conjugate parameter, B, and thermal radiation parameter, Rd, are analyzed and presented graphically. Results are presented for the local skin friction coefficient, heat transfer rate and couple stress coefficient for high Prandtl number. It is found that skin friction coefficient and couple stress coefficient reduces whereas heat transfer rate enhances when the micro-inertia parameter increases. All the physical quantities get augmented with thermal radiation.