MIXED CONVECTION BOUNDARY LAYER FLOW OF A MICROPOLAR FLUID ON A HORIZONTAL PLATE

An analysis is performed to study the heat transfer characteristics of laminar mixed convection boundary layer flow of a micropolar fluid past a semi-infinite horizontal fiat plate with variable surface heat flux. A nonsimilar mixed convection parameter £ and a pseudosimilarity variable v are introduced to cast the governing boundary layer equations into a system of dimensionless equations, which are solved numerically using the finite difference method. A single mixed convection parameter is used to cover the entire regime of mixed convection from the pure forced convection limit to the pure free convection limit. The effect of material parameters, the power-law variation of surface heat flux, nonsimilar mixed convection parameter and Prandtl number are considered. The micropolar fluids are observed to display drag reduction and reduced surface heat transfer rate when compared to Newtonian fluids. The effect of the buoyancy force results in the enhancements of friction factor, heat transfer rate and wall couple stress.