Effects of Viscous Dissipation and Wall Conduction on Steady Mixed Convection Couette Flow of Heat Generating/Absorbing Fluid

Abstract

This article theoretically investigated mixed convection flow of heat generating/absorbing fluid in the presence of viscous dissipation and wall conduction effects. The flow is considered to be steady in a vertical channel with some boundary thickness. One of the plates is heated while the other is kept at ambient temperature. The governing flow equations were solved analytically using Homotopy Perturbation Method (HPM). The influences of the governing parameters were captured in graphs, tables and a table was constructed for validation of the work. It is worthwhile to stress that, both the velocity and temperature profiles decrease near the heated plate with an increase in boundary thickness (<i>d</i>) while the reverse cases were observed toward the cold plate. The velocity profile increases near the heated plate with increase in mixed convection parameter (<i>Gre</i>) and decreases towards the cold plate. Rate of heat transfer has been observed to decrease with increase in boundary plate thickness (<i>d</i>) while the critical value of (<i>Gre</i>) increases with growing boundary plate thickness. The study therefore established the importance of boundary plate thickness in mixed convection investigation.