Heat transfer in the flow of a viscoelastic fluid over a stretching surface

Abstract

An analysis is made of heat transfer in the boundary layer of a viscoelastic fluid flowing over a stretching surface. The velocity of the surface varies linearly with the distance x from a fixed point and the surface is held at a uniform temperature T _w higher than the temperature T _∞ of the ambient fluid. An exact analytical solution for the temperature distribution is found by solving the energy equation after taking into account strain energy stored in the fluid (due to its elastic property) and viscous dissipation. It is shown that the temperature profiles are nonsimilar in marked contrast with the case when these profiles are found to be similar in the absence of viscous dissipation and strain energy. It is also found that temperature at a point increases due to the combined influence of these two effects in comparison with its corresponding value in the absence of these two effects. A novel result of this analysis is that for small values of x, heat flows from the surface to the fluid while for moderate and large values of x, heat flows from the fluid to the surface even when T _w >T _∞. Temperature distribution and the surface heat flux are determined for various values of the Prandtl number P, the elastic parameter K ₁ and the viscous dissipation parameter a. Numerical solutions are also obtained through a fourth-order accurate compact finite difference scheme.