Coupling Effects of Viscous Sheet and Ambient Fluid on Boundary Layer Flow and Heat Transfer in Power-Law Fluids

Abstract

This paper investigates the flow and heat transfer of power-law fluids over a stretching sheet where the coupling dynamics influence of viscous sheet and ambient fluid is taken into account via the stress balance. A modified Fourier's law is introduced in which the effects of viscous dissipation are taken into account by assuming that the thermal conductivity is to be shear-dependent on the velocity gradient. The conditions for both velocity and thermal boundary layers admitting similarity solutions are found, and numerical solutions are computed by a Bvp4c program. The results show that the viscous sheet and rheological properties of ambient fluids have significantly influences on both velocity and temperature fields characteristics. The formation of sheet varies with the viscosity of fluid and draw ratio, which then strongly affects the relations of the local skin friction coefficient, the local Nusselt number, and the generalized Reynolds number. Moreover, for specified parameters, the flow and heat transfer behaviors are discussed in detail.