Transient free convection flow of a viscous incompressible fluid past an infinite vertical plate with periodic heat flux

An exact solution by the Laplace-transform technique to the transient free convection flow past an infinite vertical plate in the presence of periodic heat flux superposed on the steady heat flux at the plate, is presented in this paper. It is observed that the transition from conduction to convection takes place at a distance nearer and nearer to the leading edge when a or frequency omega or the Prandtl number is high. In case of flow of high Prandtl number fluids, when the frequency is high, the transition from conduction to convection may take place at the leading edge itself.