LAMINAR FREE-CONVECTION FLOW OF MICROPOLAR FLUIDS FROM A CURVED SURFACE

The laminar free convection flow of a micropolar fluid past an arbitrary curved surface has been analysed by using the cubic spline collocation numerical method. It is found that the flow field admits similarity solutions when the power functions for the stream-wise variations of the wall temperature m and the body shape configurations n are constants, and the sum of them is equal to unity. The solutions for the flow and heat transfer characteristics are evaluated numerically for different parameters, such as the body shape parameter n, the vortex viscosity parameter N-1, the spin-gradient viscosity parameter N-3 and the Prandtl number Pr. Results show that the heat transfer rate increases as the body shape parameter n or the parameter N-1 decreases and the Prandtl number increases. The skin friction factor increases as the value of N-1 decreases. In addition, an increase in the parameter N-3 leads to an increase of the angular velocity boundary layer thickness. The model may solve industrial problems with processing of polymeric liquids, lubricants and molten plastics.