Behaviors of anisotropic fluids in the vicinity of a wedge

The laminar boundary layer flow and heat transfer of anisotropic fluids in the vicinity of a wedge have been examined with constant surface temperature. The similarity variables found by Falkner and Skan are employed to reduce the streamwise-dependence in the coupled nonlinear boundary layer equations. The numerical solutions are presented using the fourth-order Runge-Kutta method and the distribution of velocity, micro-rotation, shear and couple stresses and temperature across the boundary layer are plotted. These results are also compared with the corresponding flow problems for Newtonian fluid over wedges. It is found that for a constant wedge angle, the skin friction coefficient is lower for micropolar fluid, as compared to Newtonian fluid. For the case of the constant material parameterK, however, the magnitude of velocity for anisotropic fluid is greater than that of Newtonian fluid. The numerical results also show that for a constant wedge angle with a given Prandtl number,Pγ=1, the effect of increasing values ofK results in increasing thermal boundary layer thickness for anisotropic fluid, as compared with Newtonian fluid. For the case of the constant material parameterK, however, the heat transfer rate for anisotropic fluid is lower than that of Newtonian fluid.