Natural convection flow over an inclined flat plate with internal heat generation and variable viscosity

The present investigation deals with study of laminar natural convection flow of a viscous fluid over a semi-infinite flat plate inclined at a small angle to the horizontal with internal heat generation and variable viscosity. The dimensionless boundary layer equations are solved numerically for a negatively inclined plate using a very efficient marching order implicit finite difference scheme. Some results obtained numerically are, also, presented graphically at the point of separation in terms of velocity and temperature profiles. Several physically important quantities, specifically the local skin-friction coefficient and local Nusselt number are discussed with the effects of the physical parameters, namely, heat generation parameter, Q , viscosity-variation parameter, λ, and inclination parameter, 3, for a fluid of high Prandtl number, Pr. It is found that for a severely large Prandtl number Pr > 1000.0, which is appropriate for geophysical problems, both local skin friction and local Nusselt number coefficients get enhanced. It is interesting to see that the heat generation parameter, Q , as well as the viscosity-variation parameter, λ, have a significant role in the velocity and temperature distributions. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.