Numerical predictions of laminar flow and free convection heat transfer from an isothermal vertical flat plate

Abstract

In this present work, the laminar free convection boundary layer flow of a two-dimensional fluid over the vertical flat plate with a uniform surface temperature has been numerically investigated in detail by the similarity solution method. The velocity and temperature profiles were considered similar to all values and their variations are as a function of distance from the leading edge measured along with the plate. By taking into account this thermal boundary condition, the system of governing partial differential equations is reduced to a system of non-linear ordinary differential equations. The latter was solved numerically using the Runge-Kutta method of the fourth-order, the solution of which was obtained by using the FORTRAN code on a computer. The numerical analysis resulting from this simulation allows us to derive some prescribed values of various material parameters involved in the problem to which several important results were discussed in depth such as velocity, temperature, and rate of heat transfer. The definitive comparison between the two numerical models showed us an excellent agreement concerning the order of precision of the simulation. Finally, we compared our numerical results with a certain model already treated, which is in the specialized literature.