Numerical analysis of the flow and heat transfer of a power-law fluid over a rotating disk

The three-dimensional steady laminar flow of an incompressible non-Newtonian power-law fluid over a rotating infinite disk with heat transfer was studied. The governing partial differential equations, including the continuity equation, the momentum equation and the energy equation, were transformed to ordinary differential equations by utilizing the generalized Karman similarity transformation. The corresponding nonlinear two-point boundary value problem was solved by the multi-shooting method. Numerical re-sults were obtained for the shear-thinning fluid, the Newtonian fluid and the shear-thickening fluid. It is shown that the power-law character index and the Prandtl number affect the velocities in all directions and the temperature of the fluid in the boundary layer. The results are compared with those of Andersson et al. without considering heat transfer.