An Investigation on Separation Points of Power-Law model Along a Rotating Round-Nosed Body

Abstract

The purpose of present study is to numerically investigate the natural convection flow of Ostwalde-de Waele type power law non-Newtonian fluid along the surface of rotating axi-symmetric round-nosed body. For computational purpose rotating hemisphere is used as a case study in order to examine the heat transfer mechanism near such transverse curvature geometries. The numerical scheme is applied after converting the dimensionless system of equations into primitive variable formulations. Implicit finite difference method is used to integrate the equations numerically. Its worth mentioning that all the numerical simulations performed here are valid particularly for the class of shear thickening fluid with wide range of Prandtl number, i.e. (10:0 ≤ Pr ≤ 1500:0). A detailed discussion is done to understand the effects of buoyant forces and power-law exponents on the rate of heat transfer and skin friction coefficient at the surface of the hemisphere. Comparison of present numerical results for different values of buoyancy ratio parameter λ with other published data has been shown in graphical form. For the first time the velocity profiles are plotted at the point of separation, which occurs when the portion of the boundary layer closest to the wall or leading edge reverses in flow direction. It is recorded that an increase in the power-law index n and Prandtl number Pr leads to an increase in the friction factor as well as in the rate of heat transfer.