Flow and heat transfer over a rotating disk with surface roughness

A numerical study is made of flow and heat transfer near an infinite disk, which rotates steadily about the longitudinal axis. The surface of the disk is characterized by axisymmetric, sinusoidally-shaped roughness. The representative Reynolds number is large. Numerical solutions are acquired to the governing boundary-layer-type equations. The present numerical results reproduce the previous data for a flat disk. For a wavy surface disk, the radial distributions of local skin friction coefficient and local Nusselt number show double periodicity, which is in accord with the previous results. Physical explanations are provided for this finding. The surface-integrated torque coefficient and average Nusselt number increase as, the surface roughness parameter increases. The effect of the Rossby number is also demonstrated. (c) 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.