Laminar Free Convection on a Curved Wall

Abstract

Laminar free convection of a Newtonian fluid passing over a curved wall having arbitrary temperature variation is considered. The governing equations are presented and the method of free parameters is used to investigate the existence of similarity solutions. It is found that similarity solutions do exist when the wall inclination and temperature are required to be certain functions of the coordinate parallel to the wall. Numerical solutions to several example cases are presented which indicate that higher heat-transfer rates are possible on a wall which is concave with respect to the fluid.