Suction, viscous dissipation and thermal radiation effects on the flow and heat transfer of a power-law fluid past an infinite porous plate

This paper presents a study of the flow and heat transfer of an incompressible Ostwald de-Waele power-law fluid past an infinite porous plate, subject to suction at the plate. The power-law index n satisfies 0 < n < 1 (shear-thinning fluid only) provided that there is suction at the plate. Three cases are studied, namely, (i) the plate with constant surface temperature (CST case), (ii) the plate with prescribed surface temperature (PST case), and (iii) the plate with prescribed heat flux (PHF case). The effects of viscous dissipation and thermal radiation are also considered in the energy equation and the variations of dimensionless surface temperature and dimensionless surface temperature gradient with various parameters are graphed and tabulated. (C) 2010 The Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.