LAMINAR FREE CONVECTION FROM A VERTICAL PLATE WITH NONUNIFORM SURFACE CONDITIONS

Abstract

Abstract A procedure is described for the calculation of the rates of momentum and heal transfer due to free convective flow along a vertical plate with either an arbitrarily prescribed surface temperature or surface heat flux. By applying appropriate coordinate transformations and the Merk series, the governing momentum and energy boundary-layer equations are expressed as a set of coupled ordinary differential equations that depend on a wedge parameter and the Prandtl number. These equations are numerically integrated for Prandtl numbers of 0.7, 1, 10, and 100, and tables of the universal functions and their surface derivatives are presented. Several computational test examples are carried out and the results are compared with previously available theoretical and experimental results.