Free convection flow of dissipative fluid from nonisothermal vertical cone

The effects of viscous dissipation with transient laminar free convection from a nonisothermal vertical cone at a wall surface temperature varying as a power function of the distance from the apex are considered. The fluid is assumed to be viscous and incompressible. The nondimensional governing equations of the flow are unsteady, coupled, and nonlinear partial differential equations, which are solved with the use of an efficient, accurate, and unconditionally stable finite difference scheme of the Crank-Nicolson type. The velocity and temperature profiles are obtained and analyzed to reveal the effect of viscous dissipation at various values of the Prandtl number and the exponent in the power law variation of the surface temperature. The local as well as average skin friction and Nusselt number are presented and analyzed. The present results are compared with available ones from the literature and are found to be in good agreement. © 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York.