SIMILARITY SOLUTION FOR UNSTEADY FREE CONVECTION OF POWER LAW FLUIDS ON HORIZONTAL PLATE

The transformation group theoretic approach is applied to present an analysis of the problem of unsteady free convection flow over a horizontal flat plate immersed in a power law fluid. Thermal boundary layer is induced within a horizontal semi-infinite layer. The system of governing partial differential equations reduces to a system of ordinary differential equations with appropriate boundary conditions by using the two-parameter group theory. The obtained ordinary differential equations are solved numerically for the velocity, pressure and temperature profiles. Effect of Prandtl number and viscosity index on the thermal boundary-layer, velocity boundary-layer, normalized Nusselt number and normalized skin friction has been investigated. The result showed thermal boundary-layer and velocity boundary-layer are a function of viscosity index.