Heat transfer in stagnation-point flow towards a stretching sheet

T. Ray Mahapatra, A. S. Gupta

Abstract Steady two-dimensional stagnation-point ow of
an incompressible viscous uid over a at deformable
sheet is investigated when the sheet is stretched in its own
plane with a velocity proportional to the distance from the
stagnation-point. It is shown that for a uid of small ki-
nematic viscosity, a boundary layer is formed when the
stretching velocity is less than the free stream velocity and
an inverted boundary layer is formed when the stretching
velocity exceeds the free stream velocity. Temperature
distribution in the boundary layer is found when the
surface is held at constant temperature and surface heat
ux is determined.
List of symbols
a constant proportional to free stream velocity far
away from the sheet
c proportionality constant of the velocity of the
stretching sheet
c
p
specic heat at constant pressure
E Eckert number
F function proportional to the velocity component
normal to the sheet
f dimensionless velocity component normal to the
sheet
H function proportional to pressure gradient
K function proportional to the pressure along the
stagnation streamline
p uid pressure
Pr Prandtl number
T uid temperature
T
w
constant sheet temperature
T

constant free stream temperature

u velocity component along the sheet
v velocity component normal to the sheet
x distance along the sheet
y distance normal to the sheet
Greek symbols
d dimensional boundary layer thickness
g dimensionless distance normal to the sheet
g
d
dimensionless boundary layer thickness
h dimensionless uid temperature
j thermal diffusivity of the uid
m kinematic viscosity coefcient
q uid density
1
Introduction
Flow of an incompressible viscous uid over a stretching
sheet has an important bearing on several technological
processes. In particular in the extrusion of a polymer in a
melt-spinning process, the extrudate from the die is gen-
erally drawn and simultaneously stretched into a sheet
which is then solidied through quenching or gradual
cooling by direct contact with water. Further glass blow-
ing, continuous casting of metals and spinning of bres
involve the ow due to a stretching surface. In all these
cases, the quality of the nal product depends on the rate
of heat transfer at the stretching surface. Crane [1] gave a
similarity solution in closed analytical form for steady
two-dimensional incompressible boundary layer ow
caused by the stretching of a sheet which moves in its own
plane with a velocity varying linearly with the distance
from a xed point. Carragher and Crane [2] investigated
heat transfer in the ow over a surface which is stretched
in its own plane with a velocity varying linearly with dis-
tance from a xed point in the case when the temperature
difference between the surface and the ambient uid is
proportional to a power of distance from the xed point.
Temperature eld in the ow over a stretching surface
subject to uniform heat ux was studied by Dutta et al. [3].
Andersson and Dandapat [4] investigated the steady two-
dimensional non-Newtonian ow of a power-law uid past
a stretching surface. Recently Chiam [5] studied two-
dimensional steady stagnation point ow of an incom-
pressible viscous uid towards a stretching plate. The
solution of this boundary value problem led him to con-
clude that the ow near the plate is identical with the
inviscid ow far from the plate and hence no boundary
layer is formed near the plate. However this conclusion is
unwarranted since his analysis is based on the highly re-
strictive assumption that the plate is stretched in its own
plane with a velocity proportional to the distance from
the stagnation point such that this velocity is identical with
the stagnation ow velocity in the inviscid free stream.
A priori there is no reason why this should be so.
In this paper we investigate steady two-dimensional
stagnation-point ow of an incompressible viscous uid
towards a stretching surface. It is shown that contrary to
the conclusion of Chiam, a boundary layer is formed near
Heat and Mass Transfer 38 (2002) 517521 Springer-Verlag 2001
DOI 10.1007/s002310100215
Received on 12 July 2000 / Published online: 29 November 2001
T. R. Mahapatra, A. S. Gupta (&)
Department of Mathematics
Indian Institute of Technology
Kharagpur-721 302, India
517
the stretching surface. The structure of this boundary layer
is, however, found to depend on the ratio of the velocity of
the stretching surface to that of the frictionless potential
ow in the neighbourhood of the stagnation point. Tem-
perature distribution in the boundary layer is found in the
case when the stretching surface is held at constant tem-
perature and the heat ux from the surface is also calcu-
lated.
2
Fluid motion
Consider the steady two-dimensional ow near a stagna-
tion point at a surface coinciding with the plane y = 0, the
ow being conned to y > 0. Two equal and opposite
forces are applied along the x-axis so that the surface is
stretched keeping the origin xed, as shown schematically
in Fig. 1. The velocity distribution in the frictionless po-
tential ow in the neighbourhood of the stagnation at
x = y = 0 is given by
u = ax; v = ay ; (1)
where the constant a(>0) is proportional to the free
stream velocity far away from the surface. The pressure
distribution p(x; y) in this potential ow is then given by
Bernoulli's equation as
p
0
p =
1
2
qa
2
(x
2
y
2
) ; (2)
where p
0
is the stagnation pressure, q being the density of
the uid. At the stretching surface, the no-slip condition
gives
u = cx; v = 0 at y = 0 ; (3)
where c is a positive constant.
For the viscous ow near the surface, we assume
u = xF
/
(y); v = F(y) (4)
so that the continuity equation is satised automatically.
The x-momentum equation then gives

1
q
op
ox
= xH(y) ; (5)
where
H(y) = mF
///
FF
//
(F
/
)
2
; (6)
m being the kinematic viscosity of the uid. Partial inte-
gration of (5) yields
p
q
=
1
2
x
2
H(y) K(y) ; (7)
where the function qK(y) is the pressure along the stag-
nation streamline at x = 0. When (4) and (7) are inserted
in the y-momentum equation, we obtain
FF
/
=
1
2
x
2
H
/
K
/
mF
//
: (8)
This equation cannot be true for arbitrary x and y unless
H
/
= 0. Hence H is constant so that (6) is the differential
equation that governs the problem. When (6) is evaluated
as y with the assumption that F
//
() and F
///
() are
zero (a requirement that the ow smoothly approaches the
free stream) along with F
/
() = a (which follows from (1)
and (4)), we nd that H = a
2
. The complete problem for
F(y) now reads
(F
/
)
2
FF
//
mF
///
= a
2
: (9)
The boundary conditions for F(y) are obtained from (1)
and (3) as
F(0) = 0; F
/
(0) = c; F
/
()
= a : (10)
When the velocity eld is found from the solution of (9)
and (10), the pressure distribution is obtained from the
solution of (8). Note that when c = 0, Eqs. (9) and (10)
constitute the governing equations for two-dimensional
stagnation-point ow towards a rigid plane surface, which
was analyzed by Hiemenz [6].
Introducing the dimensionless variables
f (g) =
F(y)
(cm)
1
2
; g = y
c
m
1
2
; (11)
Eq. (9) reduces to
f
///
ff
//
(f
/
)
2

a
2
c
2
= 0 ; (12)
where a prime now denotes differentiation with respect to
g. The boundary conditions for (12) follow from (10) as
f (0) = 0; f
/
(0) = 1; f
/
() =
a
c
: (13)
It may be noted that Chiam [5] assumed a = c without any
justication and derived the solution of (12) satisfying (13)
as f (g) = g leading to u = ax; v = ay. From this he in-
ferred that no boundary layer is formed near the stretching
surface.
Equations (12) and (13) have been solved numerically
by nite difference method using Thomas algorithm [7].
Fig. 2 shows that variation of the horizontal velocity
component with the distance from the surface for different
values of a=c. It can be clearly seen that when a=c > 1, the
ow has a boundary layer structure. Further the thickness
of the boundary layer decreases with increase in a=c. This Fig. 1. A sketch of the physical problem
518
is physically explained as follows. For xed value of c
corresponding to the stretching of the surface, increase in
a in relation to c (such that a=c > 1) implies increase in
straining motion near the stagnation region resulting in
increased acceleration of the external stream. This leads to
thinning of the boundary layer with increase in a=c. It is
also interesting to note from Fig. 2 that when a=c < 1, the
ow has an inverted boundary layer structure. This stems
from the fact that when a=c < 1, the stretching velocity cx
of the surface exceeds the velocity ax of the external
stream. It is also observed that at a certain location the
horizontal velocity increases with increase in a=c for all
values of a=c. The following table gives the values of
g = g
d
, where the horizontal velocity component f
/
(g)
takes the asymptotic value f
/
() = a=c for several values
of a=c.
Figure 3 shows the variation of f (g), the vertical com-
ponent of velocity with g for several values of a=c. It can be
seen that f (g) increases with increase in a=c. Table 2 gives
the values of the dimensionless shear stress f
//
(0) at the
stretching surface for several values of a=c.
It can be seen that when a=c < 1, the magnitude of f
//
(0)
decreases with increase in a=c. But when a=c > 1, f
//
(0)
increases with increase in a=c, which is consistent with the
fact that there is progressive thinning of the boundary
layer with increase in a=c.
3
Heat transfer
In Sect. 2, we have given an exact solution of the Navier
Stokes equations which represents two-dimensional stag-
nation-point ow towards a stretching surface. It is found
that the ow has a boundary layer structure and the
thickness g
d
of this layer of non-zero vorticity is uniform
(i.e. it does not depend on x) for a given value of a=c, as
can be seen from Table. 1. This uniformity of thickness is
due to the fact that the convection in the free stream with
velocity ax is just enough to prevent the thickening of the
layer by viscous diffusion. If we consider the corre-
sponding distance (dimensional) from the stretching sur-
face, denoted by y = d, as the boundary layer, we have on
using (11),
d = g
d
m
c
1
2
; (14)
where g
d
depends on a=c. Hence the thickness of the layer
which is inuenced by viscosity is small at low kinematic
viscosity and is proportional to m
1
2
.
To determine the temperature distribution and heat
transfer in the above boundary layer, we solve the energy
equation
u
oT
ox
v
oT
oy
= j
o
2
T
oy
2

l
qc
p
@u
oy

2
; (15)
where j and c
p
denote respectively the thermal diffusivity
and specic heat of the uid and the last term in (15)
represents viscous dissipation in the boundary layer ap-
proximations. The boundary conditions are
T = T
w
at y = 0 and T = T

as y ;
(16)
where T
w
and T

are constants and we assume that

T
w
> T

. Introducing the dimensionless temperature h as

h =
T T

T
w
T

(17)
and using (4) and (11), we obtain from (15),
xf
/
oh
ox
f
oh
og
=
1
Pr
o
2
h
og
2

c
2
x
2
(f
//
)
2
c
p
(T
w
T

)
; (18)
where Pr is the Prandtl number m=j. Setting
h(x; g) = h
0
(g)
cx
2
m
h
1
(g) (19)
in (18) and equating the coefcients of x
0
and x
2
, we get
h
//
0
Pr f h
/
0
= 0 (20)
and
h
//
1
Pr[f h
/
1
2f
/
h
1
[ = PrE(f
//
)
2
; (21)
Fig. 2. Variation of f
/
(g) with g for several values of a=c
Fig. 3. Variation of f (g) with g for several values of a=c
Table 1.
a
c
0.10 0.20 0.50 2.00 3.00
g
d
6.96 5.91 4.36 2.62 2.30
519
where E is the Eckert number mc=c
p
(T
w
T

), which is a
measure of viscous dissipation. The boundary conditions
for h
0
(g) and h
1
(g) are obtained from (16) and (19) as
h
0
(0) = 1; h
0
() = 0 (22)
and
h
1
(0) = 0; h
1
() = 0 : (23)
Equations (20)(23) have been solved numerically by nite
difference method using Thomas Algorithm [7].
Figure 4 shows the variation of h
0
(g) with g for various
values of a=c with Pr = 0.05. It can be clearly seen that in
the absence of viscous dissipation (E = 0), temperature at
a point decreases with increase in a=c. Figure 5 shows that
for a xed value of a=c, temperature at a point decreases
with increase in Pr in the absence of viscous dissipation.
Figure 6 shows the variation of h
1
(g) with g for several
values of a=c when Pr = 0.05 and E = 2.0. It can be seen
that h
1
(g) is everywhere positive. It then follows from (19),
that in the presence of viscous dissipation (E ,= 0), tem-
perature at a point exceeds the corresponding temperature
in the absence of viscous dissipation. This is to be ex-
pected on physical grounds since viscous dissipation leads
to heating the uid. Figure 7 displays the variation of h
1
(g)
with g for several values of E when a=c = 2:0 and
Pr = 0.05. It can be seen that at a given location, h
1
in-
creases with increase in E. Hence it follows from (19) that
temperature at a point increases with increase in E and this
is consistent with the fact that increase in viscous dissi-
pation leads to enhanced heating of the uid. From (19),
the dimensionless heat ux at the surface is evaluated as
h
/
(0) = h
/
0
(0)
cx
2
m
h
/
1
(0) : (24)
Table 3 gives the computed values of h
/
0
(0) for various
values of a=c and Pr. It can be seen that h
/
0
(0) is positive
and this is consistent with the fact that in the absence of
viscous dissipation, heat ows from the surface to the uid
as long as T
w
> T

. It is also observed that for a xed

value of Pr, the surface heat ux h
/
0
(0) increases with
increase in a=c (see Table 3). Since, as noted earlier, the
skin friction f
//
(0) increases with increase in a=c, one
would expect that surface heat ux also increases with
Fig. 4. Variation of h
0
(g) with g for several values of a=c with
Pr = 0.05
Fig. 5. Variation of h
0
(g) with g for several values of Pr with
a=c = 2:0
Fig. 6. Variation of h
1
(g) with g for several values of a=c with
Pr = 0.05 and E = 2.0
Fig. 7. Variation of h
1
(g) with g for several values of E with
a=c = 2:0 and Pr = 0.05
Table 2.
a=c 0.10 0.20 0.50 2.00 3.00
f
//
(0) )0.9694 )0.9181 )0.6673 2.0175 4.7293
520
increase in a=c in view of the Reynolds analogy [6] be-
tween skin-friction and heat transfer in boundary layer
ow with negligible viscous dissipation.
Tables 4 and 5 give the computed values of h
/
1
(0) for
several values of a=c and Pr corresponding to E = 2.0 and
E = 5.0, respectively, It can be seen that h
/
1
(0) is always
negative. Hence it follows from (24) that for given values
of Pr and E, heat ows from the stretching surface to the
uid for small enough values of x(c=m)
1
2
. But at a certain
value X of x(c=m)
1
2
, the surface heat ux vanishes and when
x(c=m)
1
2
exceeds X, heat ows from the uid to the
stretching surface. This novel result admits of a physical
interpretation. For very small values of x(c=m)
1
2
, viscous
dissipation in the ow is small (see equation (18)) and
hence no signicant heat is generated inside the ow. Thus
for small values of x(c=m)
1
2
, heat ows from the surface to
the uid (h
/
(0) > 0) since T
w
> T

. On the other hand

for large values of x(c=m)
1
2
, sufcient heat is generated in-
side the boundary layer due to viscous dissipation. Under
such circumstances temperature near the surface exceeds
the surface temperature T
w
and heat then ows from the
uid to the surface even when T
w
> T

. Tables 6 and 7
give the computed values of X (where the surface heat ux
vanishes) for various values of a=c and Pr corresponding
to E = 2.0 and 5.0 respectively.
It can be seen that for xed values of a=c and Pr, X
decreases with increase in E.
4
Results and discussion
We have obtained an exact similarity solution of the
NavierStokes equations which represents steady two-
dimensional stagnation-point ow of an incompressible
viscous uid towards a stretching sheet. The sheet is
stretched in its own plane with a velocity cx, x being the
distance along the plate from the stagnation point. It is
found that for a uid of small viscosity, a boundary layer
is formed when a=c > 1, where the velocity in the fric-
tionless ow has components (ax; ay). On the other
hand an inverted boundary layer is formed when
a=c < 1. Shear stress at the surface decreases with in-
crease in a=c as long as a=c < 1 but it increases with
increasing a=c when a=c > 1. Temperature distribution
in the boundary layer is found when the surface tem-
perature T
w
exceeds the free-stream temperature T

.
Heat ux at the surface is calculated and it is shown that
in the presence of signicant viscous dissipation, at a
certain distance away from the stagnation-point and
thereafter, heat ows from the uid to the surface even
if T
w
> T

.
References
1. Crane LJ (1970) Flow past a stretching plate. Zeit Angew Math
Phys 21: 645647
2. Carragher P; Crane LJ (1982) Heat transfer on a continuous
stretching sheet. Zeit Angew Math Mech 62: 564565
3. Dutta BK; Roy P; Gupta AS (1985) Temperature eld in ow
over a stretching surface with uniform heat ux. Int Comm
Heat Mass Transfer 12: 8994
4. Andersson HI; Dandapat BS (1991) Flow of a power-law uid
over a stretching sheet. Stab Appl Anal Cont Media (SAACM),
Italy 1: 339347
5. Chiam TC (1994) Stagnation-point ow towards a stretching
plate. J Phys Soc Japan 63: 24432444
6. Schlichting H (1960) Boundary Layer Theory. 6th edn.,
McGraw Hill
7. Fletcher CAJ (1988) Computational Techniques for Fluid
Dynamics. Vol. 1, Springer-Verlag
Table 3. Values of h
/
0
(0)
a=c Pr
0.05 0.5 1.0 1.5
0.1 )0.081 )0.383 )0.603 )0.777
0.2 )0.099 )0.408 )0.625 )0.797
0.5 )0.136 )0.473 )0.692 )0.863
1.0 )0.178 )0.563 )0.796 )0.974
2.0 )0.241 )0.709 )0.974 )1.171
3.0 )0.289 )0.829 )1.124 )1.341
Table 4. Values of h
/
1
(0) for E = 2.0
a=c Pr
0.05 0.5 1.0 1.5
0.1 0.041 0.330 0.583 0.802
0.2 0.035 0.281 0.500 0.691
0.5 0.016 0.131 0.234 0.326
2.0 0.098 0.807 1.467 2.060
3.0 0.457 3.780 6.891 9.696
Table 5. Values of h
/
1
(0) for E = 5.0
a=c Pr
0.05 0.5 1.0 1.5
0.1 0.102 0.824 1.458 2.006
0.2 0.086 0.703 1.251 1.727
0.5 0.040 0.326 0.586 0.815
2.0 0.244 2.017 3.668 5.151
3.0 1.142 9.450 17.227 24.239
Table 6. Values of X for E = 2.0
a=c Pr
0.05 0.5 1.0 1.5
0.1 1.406 1.077 1.022 0.984
0.2 1.682 1.205 1.118 1.074
0.5 2.915 1.900 1.718 1.627
2.0 1.568 0.937 0.815 0.754
3.0 0.795 0.468 0.400 0.372
Table 7. Values of X for E = 5.0
a=c Pr
0.05 0.5 1.0 1.5
0.1 0.893 0.682 0.643 0.622
0.2 1.073 0.762 0.707 0.679
0.5 1.846 1.204 1.086 1.029
2.0 0.994 0.593 0.515 0.477
3.0 0.503 0.296 0.255 0.235
521