Natural convection flow of a viscous fluid with viscosity inversely proportional to linear function of temperature from a vertical wavy cone

Free convection over an isothermal vertical wavy cone immersed in a fluid with variable viscosity is studied in this paper. We consider the boundary-layer regime where the Grashof number is very large and assume that the wavy surfaces have O(1) amplitude and wavelength. Using the appropriate variables, which reduce the wavy cone to a flat one, the basic equations are transformed to nonsimilar boundary-layer equations. These equations are then solved numerically using a very efficient implicit finite-difference method known as Keller box scheme. Detailed results for the streamlines, isotherms, reduced skin friction and heat transfer rates for a selection of parameter sets consisting of the viscosity parameter, wavy surface amplitude, half cone angle and Prandtl number. (C) 2001 Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS.