• COMPUTATIONAL STUDY OF NON-NEWTONIAN EYRING-POWELL FLUID FROM A HORIZONTAL CIRCULAR CYLINDER WITH BIOT NUMBER EFFECTS

Abstract

In this article, we investigate the nonlinear steady boundary layer flow and heat transfer of an incompressible Eyring-Powell non-Newtonian fluid from a Horizontal Circular Cylinder.  The transformed conservation equations are solved numerically subject to physically appropriate boundary conditions using a second-order accurate implicit finite-difference Keller Box technique. The numerical code is validated with previous studies.  The influence of a number of emerging non-dimensional parameters, namely the Eyring-Powell rheological fluid parameter (e), the local non-Newtonian parameter based on length scale (δ), Prandtl number (Pr), Biot number (g) and dimensionless tangential coordinate (x) on velocity and temperature evolution in the boundary layer regime are examined in detail.  Furthermore the effects of these parameters on surface heat transfer rate and local skin friction are also investigated.  Validation with earlier Newtonian studies is presented and excellent correlation achieved.  It is found that the velocity and the Nusselt number (heat transfer rate) are reduced with increasing fluid parameter , whereas temperature and skin friction are enhanced.  Increasing fluid parameter, the local non-Newtonian parameter based on length scale (δ) enhances the velocity, local skin friction and the Nusselt number (heat transfer rate) but reduces the temperature.  An increase in the Biot number (g) is observed to enhance velocity, temperature, local skin friction and Nusselt number. An increasing Prandtl number, Pr, is found to decrease both velocity and temperature.  The study is relevant to chemical materials processing applications.