Unsteady free convection on a vertical cylinder with variable heat and mass flux

Abstract

The unsteady natural convection boundary layer flow over a semi-infinite vertical cylinder is considered with combined buoyancy force effects, for the situation in which the surface temperature T ^′ _w(x) and C ^′ _w(x) are subjected to the power-law surface heat and mass flux as K(T ^′/r) = −ax ⁿ and D(C ^′/r) = −bx ^m. The governing equations are solved by an implicit finite difference scheme of Crank-Nicolson method. Numerical results are obtained for different values of Prandtl number, Schmidt number ‘n’ and ‘m’. The velocity, temperature and concentration profiles, local and average skin-friction, Nusselt and Sherwood numbers are shown graphically. The local Nusselt and Sherwood number of the present study are compared with the available result and a good agreement is found to exist.