A Horizontal Flow Past a Partially Heated, Infinite Vertical Cylinder

Abstract

The free-convection boundary layer along a partially heated infinitely long vertical cylinder disturbed by a steady horizontal flow is studied. The asymptotic solution indicates that the boundary layer is mainly induced by the buoyancy force in the neighborhood of the thermal leading edge. The effect of the horizontal free stream on the boundary layer gradually increases as one moves upward away from the thermal leading edge along the cylinder. The boundary-layer separation does not occur in the neighborhood of the thermal leading edge. However, the asymptotic solution shows that the forced convection tends to separate the boundary layer along the aft body of the cylinder. The importance of the effect of the forced convection is governed by the parameter εz1/2 where ε is the inverse of the square root of the Richardson number. The asympotic solution is valid as long as the value of εz1/2 is small, and is not explicitly restricted by the Richardson number.