Natural convection flow from an isothermal horizontal circular cylinder with temperature dependent viscosity

Free convection flow from an isothermal horizontal circular cylinder immersed in a fluid with viscosity proportional to an inverse linear function of temperature is studied. The governing boundary layer equations are transformed into a non-dimensional form and the resulting nonlinear system of partial differential equations is reduced to local non-similarity equations which are solved numerically by a very efficient implicit finite difference method together with Keller box scheme. Numerical results are presented by velocity and viscosity profiles of the fluid as well as heat transfer characteristics, namely the local heat transfer rate and the local skin-friction coefficients for a wide range of viscosity parameter ε (= 0.0, 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, 3.0,4.0) and the Prandtl number Pr (= 1.0, 7.0, 10.0, 15.0, 20.0, 30.0).