Asian Research Thesis Index

Abstract

This thesis aims at presenting the numerical study of some flow problems related to the micropolar fluids in various geometries including the channel with stretching/shrinking walls, stretching cylinder, and the vertical square duct. The problems may be categorized as the self-similar flows and the ones for which similarity solutions are not existent. For the self-problems, the powerful tool of similarity transformation is an obvious choice which converts the governing partial differential equations into a set of nonlinear ordinary differential equations which are either of third or fourth order. For the third order ODEs, order-reduction technique has been an excellent choice, whereas the ones of the fourth order are solved by employing the Differential Transform Method (DTM) and the Quasi-linearization approach. For the non self-similar problems, three step explicit Runge-Kutta method has been employed for the numerical investigation of the unsteady pulsatile flow in a horizontal channel, whereas a compact finite difference scheme is developed to study the hydro-dynamically as well as thermally developed flow in a vertical duct. The micropolar fluid model proposed by Eringen has been employed in all the investigations. Through tables and figures, effects of the governing parameters on the flow, microrotation and thermal aspects of the problems are discussed.

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