International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 103 (2016) 1214–1224

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International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijhmt

Flow and heat transfer of Ostwald-de Waele fluid over a variable

thickness rotating disk with index decreasing
Shuo Xun a, Jinhu Zhao b,a, Liancun Zheng a,⇑, Xuehui Chen a, Xinxin Zhang b
a
School of Mathematics and Physics, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China
b
School of Energy and Environmental Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This paper investigates the flow and heat transfer of Ostwald-de Waele fluid over a variable thickness
Received 30 June 2016 rotating disk with style of z = a (r/R0 + 1)
m. Boundary layer governing partial equations are reduced to
Received in revised form 10 August 2016 a set of semi-similarity ordinary differential equations by modified local von Kármán’s transformation
Accepted 19 August 2016
and then solved by Runge–Kutta method coupled with multi-shooting technique. The effects of involved
parameters (Ostwald-de Waele fluid physical power law exponent, disk thickness index, Prandtl number)
on velocity and temperature fields, local skin friction coefficient and Nusselt number are presented
Keywords:
graphically. Some new phenomena are found. Results indicate that, unlike the flat rotating disk, the local
Ostwald-de Waele fluid
Rotating disk flow
radial skin friction coefficients and tangential decrease with the fluid physical power law exponent
Variable thickness increases, the peak in the radial velocity rises which is significantly distinct from the results of a
Heat transfer power-law fluid over a flat rotating disk. As disk thickness index m increases, the local radial skin friction
Shooting technique coefficient increases while local tangential skin friction coefficient decreases, the local Nusselt number
decrease, both the thickness of velocity and temperature boundary layer increase.
Ó 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The research of the steady flow and heat transfer induced by a
rotating disk has become one of the hottest problems in academia
due to its extensive technical applications, such as computer stor-
age, geothermal industry, rotating machinery, turbo-machinery,
lubrication, chemical process and so on. The pioneering work on
the flow of a Newtonian fluid over an infinite rotating disk was
done by von Kármán [1], who transformed the Navier–Stokes
equations into a set of ordinary equations using classical similarity
transformations. Based on his work, many researches devoted a lot
to studying the flow and heat transfer problems on rotating disk by
taking several industrial and technology applications into account.
Ram and Kumar [2] studied the FHD boundary flow of the electri-
cally non-conducting magnetic fluid over a rotating disk when the
viscosity of the fluid is temperature dependent. Rashidi et al. [3]
made a research on entropy generation in MHD and slip flow over
a rotating porous disk. Sheikholeslami et al. [4] considered the flow
of a steady nanofluid over an inclined rotating disk and investi-
gated the effects of Brownian motion and thermophoresis. Bachok
et al. [5] studied on a rotating porous disk in a nanofluid and
Kendoush [6] found the analytical solutions for the heat transfer
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: liancunzheng@ustb.edu.cn (L. Zheng).
over a rotating porous disk. Turkyilmazoglu [7] considered the flow
and heat transfer of five types of water-based nanofluids and Hayat
et al. [8] investigated MHD flow of Cu–water nanofluid over a
rotating disk with partial slip.
Non-Newtonian fluids with properties that differ in any way
from those Newtonian fluids have been concerned about by many
researchers due to their wide applications in industry and engi-
neering, such as polymer solutions, semen and heavy oils. Mitschka
et al. [9,10] obtained a numerical solution for the flow caused by a
disk rotating in liquid with a shear depend viscosity using general-
ized von Kármán similarity transformations. Addersson et al. [11]
approved the reliability of Mitschka’s numerical results except
for highly shear-thinning fluids and provided new accurate results
for highly-thickening fluids. Attia [12] and Sahoo [13] took the
Reiner-Rivlin model into consideration. Ahmadpour and Sadeghy
[14] made a research on Bingham fluid. Griffiths [15] studied on
fluids that adhere to the Carreau model, which helps obtain a more
accurate description of non-Newtonian rotating disk flow. Griffiths
et al. [16] concerned the convective instabilities of flow of
Ostwald-de Waele fluid over a rotating disk. The heat transfer of
power-law fluids are further studied by considering various ther-
mal conductivity models, such as Zheng’ s model [17–19]. Based
on Zheng’ s model, Ming et al. [20,21] proposed a new thermal
conductivity function for the Ostwald-de Waele fluid when studied
on the heat transfer of a power-law fluid over a flat rotating disk.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2016.08.066
0017-9310/Ó 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 S. Xun et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 103 (2016) 1214–1224 1215

Nomenclature

a thickness coefficient of the disk, m (u, v, w) dimensional velocity components along r, u and z, m/s
cp specific heat at constant pressure, kJ/kg K (u⁄, v⁄, w⁄) dimensionless velocity components along r, u and z,
Cf r local radial skin friction coefficient on the disk, Eq. respectively
Cf u local tangential skin friction coefficient on the disk
ðf ; g; hÞ dimensionless velocity components Greek symbols
(F, G, H) dimensionless velocity components a dimensionless thickness coefficient of the disk
m disk thickness power law exponent e constant number
n physical power law exponent of fluid g dimensionless similarity variable
Nur local Nusselt number k thermal conductivity, W/m K
p fluid pressure, Pa k0 thermal consistency coefficient
p dimensionless fluid pressure l dynamic viscosity of the fluid, kg/m s
qw heat flux density, W/m2 l0 viscous consistency coefficient
Pr Prandtl number h, H dimensionless temperature
ðr;u; zÞ cylindrical coordinate, m swr radial shear stress on the disk, N
ðr ; u ; z Þ dimensionless cylindrical coordinate swu tangential shear stress on the disk, N
R0 feature radius, m q fluid density, kg/m3
Re Reynolds number, Re ¼ qX2
n R20 =l0 X angular velocity of the disk, s
1
T fluid temperature in the boundary layer, K n dimensionless similarity variable
Tw surface temperature of the disk, K n1 thickness of the boundary layer
T1 temperature of the ambient fluid, K

The sheet of variable thickness has strong physical and engi- of thermal conductivity (see Ref. [20]), a modified local semi-
neering backgrounds since the use of variable thickness is helpful similarity von Kármán’s transformation is proposed to reduce the
to reduce the weight of structural elements and improve the uti- governing equations into ODEs. The local similarity solutions are
lization of the material [22]. Fang et al. [23] revisited the boundary obtained by Runge–Kutta method coupled with multi-shooting
layer flow over a continuously stretching sheet with a power law technique and the effects of involved parameters on velocity, tem-
surface velocity for a sheet with variable thickness. Subhashini perature, local skin friction coefficient and Nusselt number are
et al. [24] found dual solutions in a thermal diffusive flow over a shown graphically and discussed in detail.
stretching sheet with variable thickness. Hayat et al. [25] studied
the impact of Cattaneo-Christov heat flux in the flow over a
stretching sheet with variable thickness. Wahed et al. [26] 2. Formulation of the problem
explored the characteristics of heat transfer of the nanofluid over
a nonlinear stretching sheet with variable thickness. To the We consider the steady, laminar and axi-symmetric flow and
author’s knowledge by now, very little efforts have been made to heat transfer driven solely by a disk rotating steadily with angular
discuss the flow and heat transfer of fluids over a rotating disk with velocity X about the z-axis. The power-law fluids occupy the semi-
variable thickness. infinite region on the side of disk with variable thickness. Assure
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the flow and heat no-slip and impermeability at the disk. Surface temperature of
transfer of Ostwald-de Waele fluid over a variable thickness rotat- the disk maintains at T w and the temperature of the ambient fluid
ing disk with power law decreasing. Based on Ming’s assumption keeps at T 1 . Here we take the cylindrical coordinates ðr; u; zÞ and
the physical model is shown in Fig. 1. Under the assumptions of
@p=@r ¼ 0 and @p=@z ¼ 0 (see Ref. [11]), the governing equations
of the flow and heat transfer are as follows:
u @u @w
þ þ ¼ 0; ð1Þ
r @r @z



@u v 2
@u @ @u
q u
þw ¼ l ; ð2Þ
@r r @z @z @z



@ v uv @v @ @v
q u þ þw ¼ l ; ð3Þ
@r r @z @z @z



@T @T @ @T
qcp u þ w ¼ k ; ð4Þ
@r @z @z @z

Table 1
Comparison of the present solutions with the results in Refs. [11,20] for n ¼ 1, m ¼ 0,
0
Pr ¼ 1. f ð0Þ, g 0 ð0Þ, h0 ð0Þ are the shooting parameters and
hð1Þ means the axial
inflow.
0
Author f ð0Þ
g 0 ð0Þ
h0 ð0Þ
hð1Þ

Present 0.510231 0.615921 0.396271 0.884334

Andersson [11] 0.510 0.616 – 0.883
Fig. 1. The boundary layer model of a variable thickness rotating disk with power Ming [20] 0.51021 0.61591 0.39632 0.88230
law decreasing.
1216 S. Xun et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 103 (2016) 1214–1224

subject to the boundary conditions where u, v and w are velocity components in the direction of r, u


m and z respectively, T is the temperature of the fluid, cp is the specific
r
u ¼ 0; v ¼ Xr; w ¼ 0 and T ¼ T w at z ¼ a þ1 ; ð5Þ heat at constant pressure, q is the density of the fluid, R0 is the
R0
feature radius, m is the disk thickness index, a is the thickness coef-
u ¼ 0; v ¼ 0; T ¼ T 1 as z ! 1; ð6Þ ficient of the disk which keeps small.
In terms of Ostwald-de Waele fluid model, the viscosity func-
n   2 on
1
tion l is chosen as l ¼ l0 @u þ @@zv
2 2

Table 2 @z
mentioned in [11,20]
and [27], l0 and n refer to the viscous consistency coefficient and
0
Values of shooting parameters f ð0Þ, g 0 ð0Þ h0 ð0Þ and axial inflow
hð1Þ of different
power law fluid for various thickness coefficient a when m ¼ 0:8, Pr ¼ 2:0, r ¼ 0:6.
power-law index, respectively. The case n ¼ 1 corresponds to a
n a 0
f ð0Þ
g 0 ð0Þ
h0 ð0Þ
hð1Þ Newtonian fluid, 0 < n < 1 represents the pseudo-plastic fluid
0.8 0.5 0.33047 0.41066 0.35941 1.61116
while n > 1 represents the dilatant fluid. The thermal conductivity
n   2 oðn
1Þ=2
þ @@zv
2 0.33047 0.41066 0.35941 1.61116 2
k is chosen as k ¼ k0 @u
@z
with the thermal consis-
1.2 0.5 0.38041 0.42974 0.37536 0.97806
2 0.38041 0.42974 0.37536 0.97806 tency coefficient k0 , which has been successfully applied in [20,21].

Fig. 2. Radial velocity f of the power-law fluid (n = 0.8, 0.9, 1.1, 1.5) over a thickness decreasing disk with disk thickness index m = 0.8.

Fig. 3. Tangential velocity g of the power-law fluid (n = 0.8, 0.9, 1.1, 1.2) over a thickness decreasing disk with disk thickness index m = 0.8.
 S. Xun et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 103 (2016) 1214–1224 1217

Furthermore, the radial shear stress swr and tangential shear 3. Generalized von Kármán transformations
stress swu exerted by the fluid on the disk are given by respectively
 (

2 )n
1  In this section, a generalized von Kármán similarity transforma-
@u @v @u
2
@u
2
tion is proposed in view of governing equations and boundary con-
swr ¼ l  ¼ l0 þ ;
@z z¼Aððr=R0 Þþ1Þ
m @z @z @z z¼Aððr=R0 Þþ1Þ
m ditions. The generalized dimensionless similarity variable g is
defined as
ð7Þ
(
 !nþ1

2 )n
1
1
  z X2
n R20 q
@v  @v @ v 
2
@u
2

swu ¼ l  ¼ l0 þ ; g¼ ð1 þ r  Þm ð10Þ
@z z¼Aððr=R0 Þþ1Þ
m @z @z @z z¼Aððr=R0 Þþ1Þ
m R0 l0
ð8Þ with modified local semi-similarity von Kármán’s transformation

The heat flux density can be defined as u ¼ r   R0 XFðgÞ; v ¼ r  R0 XGðgÞ; T ¼ ðT w
T 1 ÞHðgÞ þ T 1 ;

(
 !
nþ1

2 )n
1
1
  X 2
n 2
q
@T  @v @T  R0
2
@u
2

qw ¼
k ¼
k0 þ : w ¼ R0 X  ð1 þ r Þ
m HðgÞ;

@z z¼Aððr=R0 Þþ1Þ
m @z @z @z z¼Aððr=R0 Þþ1Þ
m l0
ð9Þ ð11Þ

Fig. 4. Axial velocity
h of the power-law fluid (n = 0.8, 0.9, 1.1, 1.2) over a thickness decreasing disk with disk thickness index m = 0.8.

Fig. 5. Temperature h of the power-law fluid (n = 0.8, 0.9, 1.1, 1.2) over a thickness decreasing disk with disk thickness index m = 0.8 and Prandtl number Pr = 1.0.
1218 S. Xun et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 103 (2016) 1214–1224

2f þ mðn þ aÞef þ h ¼ 0;
0 0
where r  ¼ r=R0 is the dimensionless radius. ð14Þ
Furthermore, the following deformations are introduced
n on
1
0
f þ mðn þ aÞeff
g 2 þ f h ¼ r n
1 ð1 þ rÞmðnþ1Þ ðf Þ þ ðg 0 Þ
2 0 0 0 2 2 2 0
f ;
F ¼ f ðg
aÞ ¼ f ðnÞ; G ¼ gðg
aÞ ¼ gðnÞ; ð12Þ
ð15Þ
H ¼ hðg
aÞ ¼ hðnÞ; H ¼ hðg
aÞ ¼ hðnÞ; ð13Þ
n 0
on
1
2fg þ mðn þ aÞefg þ g 0 h ¼ r n
1 ð1 þ rÞ
0 0 2 0 2
g0 ;
mðnþ1Þ 2

1
ðf Þ þ ðg Þ

nþ1
where a ¼ ða=R0 Þ  ðX2
n R20 q=l0 Þ is the dimensionless thickness
X2
n R20 q ð16Þ
coefficient of the disk and Re ¼ l0 is the Reynolds number.
n o n
1
0
1
mðn þ aÞef h0 þ h0 h ¼ r n
1 ð1 þ rÞmðnþ1Þ ðf Þ þ ðg 0 Þ
0 2
h0 ; ð17Þ
2 2
Eqs. (1)–(6) are reduced the following form (for brevity the
Pr
dimensionless mark ‘‘⁄’’ is omitted hereafter)

Fig. 6. (a) The local radial skin friction coefficient C f r of various disk thickness index m (m = 0.8, 1.5, 2.5) for different power-law fluids from n = 0.5 to n = 1.5. (b) The local
tangential skin friction coefficient C f u of various disk thickness index m (m = 0.8, 1.5, 2.5) for different power-law fluids from n = 0.5 to n = 1.5. (the minus in Fig. 6b just
means orientation).
 S. Xun et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 103 (2016) 1214–1224 1219

f ð0Þ ¼ 0; gð0Þ ¼ 1; hð0Þ ¼ 0; hð0Þ ¼ 1; at n ¼ 0 ð18Þ An o

y03 ¼ y4 ; y04 ¼ ½1 þ ðn
1ÞBy22 E
ðn
1ÞBDy2 y4 ; ð24Þ
f ðnÞ ¼ 0; gðnÞ ¼ 0; hðnÞ ¼ 0 as n ! 1; ð19Þ n
y05 ¼
2y1
mðn þ aÞey2 ; ð25Þ
where the prime represents the derivative with respect to n, f , g, h, h
y06 ¼ y7 ; y07 ¼ y7 fPr  A  C
ðn
1ÞBðy2 y02 þ y4 y04 Þg; ð26Þ
are dimensionless radial, tangential, axial velocity and temperature
respectively, e ¼ r=ð1 þ rÞ is a constant, Pr ¼ cp l0 =k0 is the Prandtl The corresponding boundary conditions are
number. Although in principle, we can obtain quantities of interest
y1 ð0Þ ¼ 0; y3 ð0Þ ¼ 1; y5 ð0Þ ¼ 0; y6 ð0Þ ¼ 1; ð27Þ
at any given r-location, in this paper, we focus only on r ¼ 0:6, i.e.,
one point inside the disk. (Obviously, the results obtained at this y1 ð1Þ ¼ 0; y3 ð1Þ ¼ 0; y6 ð1Þ ¼ 0: ð28Þ
location can qualitatively be extended to other points on the disk We introduce the parameters q, s, t as
too.)
Defining local friction coefficients as C f r ¼ swr =qðXR0 Þ2 and y2 ð0Þ ¼ q; y4 ð0Þ ¼ s; y7 ð0Þ ¼ t: ð29Þ
C f u ¼ swu =qðXR0 Þ , the local radial skin friction coefficient and tan-
2
The problem now is to determine the parameters q, s, t such that
gential skin friction coefficient are given by the solution to the Eqs. (23)–(27), (29) is found and satisfies the
boundary conditions (28). To solve this problem, we use multi-
n on
1 shooting technique and fourth-order Runge–Kutta method.
1 02 0
Renþ1 C f r ¼ r n ð1 þ rÞmn f ð0Þ þ g 02 ð0Þ
2
f ð0Þ; ð20Þ
The solution of the initial-value ODEs (23)–(26) with (27), (29)
n on
1 can be denote as Yðn; q; s; tÞ, where Y ¼ ðy1 ; y2 ; y3 . . . ; y7 Þ0 . Thus, the
1 02
Renþ1 C f u ¼ rn ð1 þ rÞmn f ð0Þ þ g 02 ð0Þ g 0 ð0Þ;
2
ð21Þ problem is to be solved
Zðn1 ; q; s; tÞ
b ¼ 0; ð30Þ
And the local Nusselt number is expressed as
1 1 qw r where n1 is the thickness of boundary layer, Z ¼
Re
nþ1 Nur ¼
Re
nþ1 n 
@u 2
@ v 2 on
1
2
ðy1 ðn1 ; q; s; tÞ; y3 ðn1 ; q; s; tÞ; y6 ðn1 ; q; s; tÞÞ0 , and shooting target b ¼
k0 @z
þ @z
ðT w
T 1 Þ ðy1 ðn1 Þ; y3 ðn1 Þ; y6 ðn1 ÞÞ0 ¼ ð0; 0; 0Þ0 . The Newtonian method is
¼
rð1 þ rÞm h0 ð0Þ: ð22Þ applied to the determine the shooting parameters q, s, t.
Define Sk ¼ ðqk ; sk ; t k Þ, Z k ¼ ðy1 ðn1 ; qk ; sk ; t k Þ; y3 ðn1 ; qk ; sk ; t k Þ;
y6 ðn1 ; qk ; sk ; tk ÞÞ0 , and the Newtonian iteration method scheme is
4. Numerical methods
Zk
b
Skþ1 ¼ Sk
; k ¼ 0; 1; 2 . . . ð31Þ
@Z k =@Sk
In order to obtain the numerical solutions, we transfer the prob-
lem (14)–(17) to a system of first-order equations by denoting In the process, initial values are given to the shooting parame-
0
y1 ¼ f , y2 ¼ f , y3 ¼ g, y4 ¼ g 0 , y5 ¼ h, y6 ¼ h, y7 ¼ h0 . And for the ters qk , sk , tk ðk ¼ 0; 1; 2 . . .Þ and then the classical fourth-order
simplicity of the form, we denote A ¼ r 1
n ð1 þ rÞ
mðnþ1Þ Runge–Kutta method is applied to get Z k . The iteration condition
ðy22 þ y24 Þ
ð1
nÞ=2
, B¼ ðy22
þ

1
y24 Þ , C ¼ y5 þ mðn þ aÞey1 , D ¼ Cy2 þ is kZ k
bk > 10
6 . Furthermore, there are two points we need to
point out that, one is the convergence of Newtonian iteration
y1
y3 and E ¼
2 2
2y1 y3 þ Cy4 .
method relies strongly on the initial guess, the other is the thick-
An o
ness of the boundary layer n1 is hard to determine before study.
y01 ¼ y2 ; y02 ¼ ½1 þ ðn
1ÞBy24 D
ðn
1ÞBEy2 y4 ; ð23Þ
n To overcome the above two obstacles, this paper applies important

Fig. 7. Local Nusselt number Nur of different disk thickness index m (m = 0.8, 1.5, 2.2) for various values of fluid physical power law exponent n from 0.5 to 1.5 with fixed
Prandtl number Pr = 2.0.
1220 S. Xun et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 103 (2016) 1214–1224

technique, firstly solving the equations in a smaller area and
obtaining revised initial guess, secondly solving equations in an
extending range with the revised initial guess, then repeating the
above two steps until suitable guesses of shooting parameters
and n1 are found.
5. Results and discussion
To verify our numerical scheme, the present numerical results
are compared with the published results for Newtonian fluids over
a rotating flat disk in Table 1 and the results are found to be in
great agreements. Numerical local similarity solutions are shown
graphically for various values of parameters, i.e., the fluid physical
power law exponent n, disk thickness index m and Prandtl number
Pr. Some important physical quantities in engineering such as
velocity and temperature distributions, the local radial skin friction
coefficient, tangential skin friction coefficient and Nusselt number
are discussed in detail. It is worth mentioning that the value of the
dimensionless thickness coefficient a does not influence the value
0
of shooting parameters f ð0Þ, g 0 ð0Þ, h0 ð0Þ and the axial inflow

hð1Þ. Some results are shown in Table 2. So in this paper, we take
a ¼ 0:5 and focus on the study for parameters n, m and Pr
emphatically.
5.1. Effects of the fluid physical power law exponent n
It is obvious in Fig. 2 that the peak values in the radial velocity
profile increase and occur at smaller n with the increasing n. As for

Fig. 8. Local Nusselt number Nur of different Prandtl number Pr (Pr = 1.5, 2, 2.5) for various values of fluid physical power law exponent n from 0.5 to 1.5 with fixed disk
thickness index m = 0.8.

Fig. 9. Radial velocity f of the pseudoplastic fluid and dilatant fluid for various disk thickness index m (m = 0.8, 1.0, 1.2, 1.4).
 S. Xun et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 103 (2016) 1214–1224 1221

the shear-thickening fluid, the effect of the fluid physical power
law exponent n on the peak in the radial velocity is pretty obvious,
the peak rises with the increasing n, which is significantly distinct
from the results of flow of a power-law fluid over a flat rotating
disk exhibited in [20]. The shear-driven velocity g decreases as n
increases. The centrifugal force associated with this circular
motion causes an outward radial velocity f, which in return is com-
pensated by an axial inflow
h (the minus just means orientation)
towards the rotating disk. Fig. 3 shows that tangential velocity dis-
tribution profiles for the fluid physical power-law exponent n
(n = 0.8, 0.9, 1.1, 1.2) with disk thickness index m = 0.8. Results
indicate that the tangential velocity profiles decrease with increas-
ing power-law exponent n.
From Fig. 4, we can see that axial velocity tends to its asymp-
totic limit
hð1Þ, and the smaller the fluid physical power law
exponent n is, the higher
hð1Þ will be, which implies that the
axial velocity increases with decreasing of fluid physical power
law exponent n. Fig. 5 shows that the temperature distributions
and thermal boundary layer thickness decrease as n increases,
which implies that heat transfer efficiency is enhanced gradually
from the shear-thinning fluid to shear-thickening fluid.
Fig. 6a and b characterize the local radial skin friction coefficient
and tangential skin friction coefficient for fluid physical power law
exponent of n (from 0.5 to 1.5) and for specified values of thickness
index m. It can be seen that the local radial skin friction coefficient
and tangential skin friction coefficient (the minus in Fig. 6b just
means orientation) decrease non-linearly with the increase of n.
Figs. 7 and 8 present the distributions of local Nusselt number
Nur fluid physical power law exponent of n and for specified values
of thickness index m and Prandtl number. Results indicate that as n

Fig. 10. Tangential velocity g of the pseudoplastic fluid and dilatant fluid for various disk thickness index m (m = 0.8, 1.0, 1.2, 1.4).

Fig. 11. Axial velocity
h of the pseudoplastic fluid and dilatant fluid for various disk thickness index m (m = 0.8, 1.0, 1.2, 1.4).
1222 S. Xun et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 103 (2016) 1214–1224

increases, the local Nusselt number decreases at first, reaches a
minimum, and then increases. The point of minimum Nusselt
number shifts to larger value of fluid physical power law exponent
n as Prandtl number decreases or disk thickness index m increases.
5.2. Effects of the disk thickness index m
As is depicted in Fig. 6a and b, the local radial skin friction coef-
ficient increases as m increases, while local tangential skin friction
coefficient decreases, and the influence of disk thickness index m
on the radial skin friction coefficient is more obvious when the
fluid physical power law exponent n is fixed. Figs. 7 and 8 shows
that the decreasing disk thickness index m or the increasing
Prandtl number Pr gives rise to the local Nusselt number.
It is obvious in Fig. 9 that the peak value in radial velocity profile
increases and needs larger n to reach with the increase of m. As is
shown in Figs. 9–12, tangential velocity g, axial inflow
h, temper-
ature h and the thickness of velocity and temperature boundary
layer increase as m increases. Conclusion can be drawn that heat
transfer is weakened for a larger m. Comparing the solid line and
dashed line in Figs. 9–12, it can be noticed that the thickness of
boundary layer is influenced more largely and obviously by the fluid
physical power law exponent n than the disk thickness index m.
5.3. Effects of Prandtl number Pr
Fig. 13 illustrates the effects of the Prandtl number on the
dimensionless temperature of shear-thickening fluids. It is shown
that an increase in Prandtl number decreases the temperature dis-
tribution and the thickness of thermal boundary layer. What
accounts for this phenomenon is that a higher value of Prandtl
number refers to the decreasing thermal conductivity, which con-

Fig. 12. Temperature h of the pseudoplastic fluid and dilatant fluid for various disk thickness index m (m = 0.8, 1.0, 1.2, 1.4) with fixed Pr = 1.0.

Fig. 13. Temperature h of the dilatant fluid for various values of Prandtl number Pr (Pr = 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0).
 S. Xun et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 103 (2016) 1214–1224
Fig. 14. Local Nusselt number Nur of different power-law fluid (n = 0.7, 0.9, 1.1, 1.3) for various values of Prandtl number Pr from 1.0 to 6.0 with fixed disk thickness index
m = 0.8.
sequently increases the surface heat transfer. Therefore, a decrease
in the thickness of thermal boundary layer is achieved. The local
Nusselt number is plotted versus Prandtl number in Fig. 14 for var-
ious values of fluid physical power law exponent n. It is obvious
that the local Nusselt number increases non-linearly as Prandtl
number increases, which represents that the local heat convection
is strengthened for larger Prandtl number. And with the increasing
of Pr, the curves of shear-thinning and shear-thickening fluid sep-
arate out more and more and this indicates the enhanced effort of
the fluid physical power law exponent n on the local heat
convection.
6. Conclusions
This paper presents numerical studies for the steady boundary-
layer flow and heat transfer of Ostwald-de Waele fluid over a vari-
able thickness rotating disk with power law decreasing. Governing
equations are transformed into ODEs with fixed independent vari-
able r by semi-analytical approach based on a new transformation
law and local similarity solutions are obtained by Runge–Kutta
method coupled with multi-shooting technique. The three main
conclusions are as follows.
(i) With the increase of the physical power law exponent of
fluid, the velocity and temperature boundary layers become
thinner, and the local skin friction coefficients decrease,
while the local Nusselt number decreases at first and then
increases. The point of minimum Nusselt number occurs at
larger value of the fluid physical power law exponent as
Prandtl number decreases or disk thickness index increases.
(ii) The increase of the disk thickness index gives rise to the
thickness of velocity and temperature boundary layer
together with local radial skin friction coefficient, while
the local tangential skin friction coefficient and Nusselt
number decrease.
(iii) As Prandtl number increases, the thickness of temperature
boundary layer reduces and the local Nusselt number
increases, which indicates that the efficiency of heat transfer
is enhanced for the larger Prandtl number.
1223
Acknowledgement
The work of the authors is supported by the National Natural
Science Foundations of China (Nos. 51276014, 51406008) and fun-
damental research funds for the central universities.
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