Network Simulation of Laminar Convective Heat and Mass Transfer over a Vertical Slender Cylinder with Uniform Surface Heat and Mass Flux

Abstract

The steady, laminar axisymmetric convective heat and mass transfer in boundary layer flow over a vertical thin cylindrical configuration in the presence of significant surface heat and mass flux is studied theoretically and numerically. The governing boundary-layer equations for momentum, energy and species conservation are transformed from a set of partial differential equations in a (x,r) coordinate system to a ([,K) system using a group of similarity transformations. The resulting equations are solved using the Network Simulation Method (NSM) for the buoyancy-assisted pure free convection and also the pure forced convection cases, wherein the effects of Schmidt number, Prandtl number and surface mass parameter on velocity, temperature and concentration distributions in the regime are presented graphically and discussed. For the buoyancy-assisted pure free convection case, nondimensional velocity (wf/wK) is found to increase with a rise in surface mass transfer (S) but decrease with increasing Prandtl number (Pr), particularly in the vicinity of the cylinder surface (small radial coordinate, K). Dimensionless temperature (T) decreases however with increasing S values from the cylinder surface into the free stream; with increasing Prandtl number, temperature is strongly reduced, with the most significant decrease at the cylinder surface. Dimensionless concentration (I) is decreased continuously throughout the boundary layer regime with an increase in S; conversely I is enhanced for all radial coordinate values with an increase in Prandtl number. For the pure forced convection case, velocity increases both with dimensionless axial coordinate ([) and dimensionless radial coordinate (K) but decays smoothly with increasing Prandtl number and increasing Schmidt number, from the cylinder surface to the edge of the boundary layer domain. The model finds applications in industrial metallurgical processes, thermal energy systems, polymer processing, etc.