The Flow of Non-Newtonian Fluids on a Flat Plate With a Uniform Heat Flux

Abstract

Forced convective heat transfer of non-Newtonian fluids on a flat plate with the heating condition of uniform surface heat flux has been investigated using a modified power-law viscosity model. This model does not restrain physically unrealistic limits; consequently, no irremovable singularities are introduced into a boundary-layer formulation for power-law non-Newtonian fluids. Therefore, the boundary-layer equations can be solved by marching from leading edge to downstream as any Newtonian fluids. For shear-thinning and shear-thickening fluids, non-Newtonian effects are illustrated via velocity and temperature distributions, shear stresses, and local temperature distribution. Most significant effects occur near the leading edge, gradually tailing off far downstream where the variation in shear stresses becomes smaller.