Nonlinear Slip Flow with Variable Transport Properties Over a Wedge with Convective Surface

Abstract

A physical model is developed considering nonlinear slip flow with temperature dependent transport properties such as fluid viscosity and thermal conductivity over a wedge in the presence of space and temperature dependent heat generation (or absorption). The surface of the wedge is considered to be heated by the convection current from a hot fluid. The governing nonlinear partial differential equations are made dimensionless with the usual similarity transformations. Due to the appearance of the slip condition at the surface of the boundary no self similar solutions can be found. Locally similar solutions are obtained numerically by using the widely used and very robust computer algebra software MATLAB. Results for the dimensionless velocity, temperature and ambient Prandtl number within the boundary layer are displayed graphically delineating the effect of the various parameters characterizing the flow and temperature fields. The rate of shear stress as well as the rate of heat transfer (in terms of Nusselt number) is also calculated for the different values of the pertinent parameters. The results show that the flow and the temperature fields are significantly influenced by the slip parameter, wedge angle parameter, buoyancy parameter, surface convection parameter, heat source (or sink) parameter, variable viscosity parameter and the thermal conductivity parameter. The results also show that the strong rarefaction significantly controls the flow and heat transfer characteristics. For the flow of variable transport fluid properties, the Prandtl number varies significantly within the boundary layer. For the modeling of flow and heat transfer with variable fluid properties the Prandtl number within the boundary layer must be treated as variable rather than constant. The obtained results from the present investigation may be applicable for many physical and engineering problems.