Free convection effects on a vertical cone with variable viscosity and thermal conductivity

Abstract

The present paper deals with a flow of a viscous incompressible fluid along a heated vertical cone, with due allowance for variations of viscosity and thermal diffusivity with temperature. The fluid viscosity is assumed to be an exponential function of temperature, and the thermal diffusivity is assumed to be a linear function of temperature. The governing equations for laminar free convection of the fluid are transformed into dimensionless partial differential equations, which are solved by a finite difference method with the Crank–Nicolson implicit scheme. Dependences of the flow parameters on the fluid viscosity and thermal conductivity are obtained.