PLoS ONE (Jan 2021)

Effects of temperature dependent viscosity and thermal conductivity on natural convection flow along a curved surface in the presence of exothermic catalytic chemical reaction.

  • Uzma Ahmad,
  • Muhammad Ashraf,
  • A Al-Zubaidi,
  • Aamir Ali,
  • Salman Saleem

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0252485
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 16, no. 7
p. e0252485

Abstract

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The natural convection boundary layer flow of a viscous incompressible fluid with temperature dependent viscosity and thermal conductivity in the presence of exothermic catalytic chemical reaction along a curved surface has been investigated. The governing non dimensional form of equations is solved numerically by using finite difference scheme. The numerical results of velocity profile, temperature distribution and mass concentration as well as for skin friction, heat transfer rate and mass transfer rate are presented graphically and in tabular form for various values of dimensionless parameters those are generated in flow model during dimensionalization. From the obtained results, it is concluded that the exothermic catalytic chemical reactions is associated with temperature dependent viscosity and thermal conductivity. Further, it is concluded that the body shape parameter also plays an important quantitative role for change in velocity profile, temperature field and mass concentration behavior in the presence of exothermic catalytic chemical reaction.