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Flow and heat transfer of non-Newtonian power-law fluids over a stretching surface with variable thermal conductivity

Meng Yang (Fujian Province University Key Laboratory of Computation Science and School of Mathematical Sciences, Huaqiao University, Quanzhou, China)
Yanhai Lin (Fujian Province University Key Laboratory of Computation Science and School of Mathematical Sciences, Huaqiao University, Quanzhou, China)

Multidiscipline Modeling in Materials and Structures

ISSN: 1573-6105

Article publication date: 10 June 2019

Issue publication date: 14 June 2019

101

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the flow and heat transfer of power-law fluids over a non-linearly stretching sheet with non-Newtonian power-law stretching features.

Design/methodology/approach

The governing non-linear partial differential equations are reduced to a series of ordinary differential equations by suitable similarity transformations and the numerical solutions are obtained by the shooting method.

Findings

As the temperature power-law index or the power-law number of the fluids increases, the dimensionless stream function, dimensionless velocity and dimensionless temperature decrease, while the velocity boundary layer and temperature boundary layer become thinner for other fixed physical parameters. The thermal diffusivity varying as a function of the temperature gradient can be used to present the characteristics of flow and heat transfer of non-Newtonian power-law fluids.

Originality/value

Unlike classical works, the effect of power-law viscosity on the temperature field is considered by assuming that the temperature field is similar to the velocity field with modified Fourier’s law heat conduction for power-law fluid media.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The National Natural Science Foundations of China Nos 11702101 and 11626106, the Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province No. 2019J05093, the Postgraduate Research Innovation Capacity Development Project Year 2018 and the Promotion Program for Young and Middle-aged Teacher in Science and Technology Research of Huaqiao University No. ZQN-PY502.

Citation

Yang, M. and Lin, Y. (2019), "Flow and heat transfer of non-Newtonian power-law fluids over a stretching surface with variable thermal conductivity", Multidiscipline Modeling in Materials and Structures, Vol. 15 No. 4, pp. 686-698. https://doi.org/10.1108/MMMS-08-2018-0147

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited

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