Radiation Effect on Free Convection Laminar Flow from an Isothermal Sphere

Natural convection laminar flow from an isothermal sphere immersed in a viscous incompressible optically dense fluid in the presence of radiation effects has been investigated. The governing boundary layer equations are transformed into a non dimensional form and the resulting nonlinear systems of partial differential equations are reduced to local non-similarity boundary layer equations, which are solved numerically by two distinct, efficient methods, namely, (i) implicit finite difference method together with the Keller box scheme and (ii) local non-similarity method. Numerical results of the velocity and temperature profiles of the fluid are presented. The results of the shearing stress and the heat transfer rate in terms of skin-friction coefficient and Nusselt number respectively are also presented for a wide range of the radiation-conduction parameter or Planck number R-d (=0.0, 1.0, 2.0, 3.0), the surface heating parameter theta(w) (=1.1, 1.2, 1.4), and Prandtl number Pr (=7.0, 10.0, 15.0, 20.0).