Author : Shashikala.B.S and N. Rudraiah

Nonlinear Mixed –Oberbeck electroconvection in a poorly conducting fluid in a vertical channel in the presence of an electric field, viscous and Ohmic dissipations is investigated. The flow is governed by the modified Navier-Stokes and energy equations with boundaries which are kept at different temperatures. The nonlinear coupled momentum and energy equations are solved numerically using finite difference technique and analytically using regular perturbation method with Br as the perturbation parameter. The velocity and temperature fields are obtained for various values of electric number, Brinkman number and GR which is nothing but the ratio of Grashof number to the Reynolds number. We note that , if GR=0 ,the problem reduces to the forced convection. We have computed the local Nusselt number at the walls, the skin friction and mass flow rate. The analytical solutions are compared with those obtained from the numerical solution and good agreement is found. We found the effect of increase in the temperature difference between the plates is to increase the velocity and temperature distributions due to increase in convection. These results are useful in the effective control of heat transfer in many industrial problems.

Keywords: Mixed Oberbeck Convection, Poorly Conducting Fluid, Skin friction, Heat transfer, Mass flow rate, Nusselt Number, Grashof Number. Brinkmann Number, Perturbation method and Electric Field.

Article published in the Proceedings of National Conference on ‘Women in Science & Engineering’ (NCWSE 2013), SDMCET Dharwad