Free Convection Fluid Flow from a Spinning Sphere with Temperature-Dependent Physical Properties

Abstract

Natural convection from a spinning sphere with temperature dependent viscosity, thermal conductivity and viscous dissipation was studied. A unique system of non-similar partial differential equations was solved using the bivariate local-linearization method (BLLM). This method use Chebyshev spectral collocation method applied in both the η and ξ directions. Similar equations in the literature are normally solved by inaccurate time-consuming finite difference methods. This work introduces a robust method for solving partial differential equations arising in heat and mass transfer. The numerical method was validated by comparison to the results previously published in the literature. The method is fully described in this article and can be used as an alternative method in solving boundary value problems. This work also presents rarely reported results of the effect of selected parameters on spin-velocity profiles g(η).