Ind. Eng. Chem. Res.

2005, 44, 5815-5827 5815

Flow and Forced Convection Heat Transfer in Crossflow of

Non-Newtonian Fluids over a Circular Cylinder
A. A. Soares and J. M. Ferreira
Departamento de Fı́sica, Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Apartado 1013,
5000-911 Vila Real, Portugal

R. P. Chhabra*
Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur 208016, India

The steady and incompressible flow of power-law type non-Newtonian fluids across an unconfined,
heated circular cylinder is investigated numerically to determine the dependence of the individual
drag components and of the heat transfer characteristics on power-law index (0.5 e n e 1.4),
Prandtl number (1 e Pr e 100), and Reynolds number (5 e Re e 40). The momentum and
energy equations are expressed in the stream function/vorticity formulation and are solved using
a second-order accurate finite difference method to determine the pressure drag and frictional
drag as well as the local and surface-averaged Nusselt numbers and to map the temperature
field near the cylinder. The accuracy of the numerical procedure is established using previously
available numerical and analytical results for momentum and heat transfer in Newtonian and
power-law fluids. The results reported herein provide fundamental knowledge of the flow and
heat transfer behavior for the flow of non-Newtonian fluids over a circular cylinder; these results
further show that the effect of the power-law index on such behavior is strongly conditioned by
the kinematic conditions and less so by the type of thermal boundary condition prescribed at
the cylinder surface.

1. Introduction pressure and frictional drag, as well as Nusselt and/or

The flow of fluids and forced convection across a
heated cylinder has been the subject of considerable
research interest because of its relevance in many
engineering applications. For instance, a knowledge of
the hydrodynamic forces experienced by submerged
cylindrical objects such as off-shore pipelines is essential
for the design of such structures. On the other hand,
because of changing process and climatic conditions, one
also needs to determine the rate of heat transfer from
such structures. Furthermore, present economic and
environmental concerns have raised an interest in
methods to determine and control forced convection heat
transfer from horizontal cylindrical structures. Ad-
ditional industrial processes where heat/mass transfer
from an isolated cylinder plays an important role
include anemometry and chemical or radioactive con-
tamination/purification, glass cooling, plastics and in-
dustrial devices, and other processes from turbine
blades to electronic circuits. Because of the importance
of these applications, there has been a great deal of
interest in the flow of Newtonian fluids and the heat
transfer across a single cylinder from the experimental,
analytical, and numerical standpoints (e.g., see refs
1-8), and excellent reviews are indeed available (e.g.,
refs 9-12). On the basis of a combination of such
analytical/numerical simulations and the available ex-
perimental results, it is perhaps fair to say that satis-
factory methods are now available which enable the
prediction of gross engineering parameters such as
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Tel.: 00 91 512 259 7393. Fax: 00 91 512 259 0007/0104.
E-mail: chhabra@iitk.ac.in.
10.1021/ie0500669 CCC: $30.25 © 2005 American Chemical Society
Published on Web 06/11/2005
Sherwood numbers, for the flow of Newtonian fluids
across a single cylinder over most conditions of interest.
On the other hand, it is readily acknowledged that many
materials (e.g., polymer solutions, melts, muds, emul-
sions, and suspensions) encountered in chemical and
processing applications often exhibit complex non-
Newtonian behavior including shear thinning and shear
thickening, viscoelasticity, and yield stress.13,14 More-
over, reliable knowledge of the hydrodynamic forces and
heat transfer characteristics of submerged cylindrical
objects is needed in connection with engineering pro-
cesses which include the use of wires and thin cylinders
as measurement probes and sensors in non-Newtonian
flow15-18 and in the design of slurry pipelines where
large particles are conveyed in a non-Newtonian vehicle.
Additional examples are found in polymer processing
operations such as the use of submerged surfaces to
form weld lines. Despite such overwhelming importance
and frequent occurrence of non-Newtonian behavior,
very little work has been reported in the literature on
the crossflow and forced convection heat transfer to non-
Newtonian fluids from a long, heated cylinder, and the
present work aims to fill this gap in the existing
literature. It is, however, instructive and useful to
briefly summarize the previous scant results available
in the literature prior to undertaking the formulation
of the present problem.
From a theoretical standpoint, because of the rheo-
logical complexities of non-Newtonian flow across a long,
heated cylinder, most of the work in this field relies on
the use of a simple, two-parameter power-law model,
which must be combined with governing equations of
momentum, continuity, and energy to obtain the pres-
5816 Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., Vol. 44, No. 15, 2005
Figure 1. Real (x, y) plane and the computational (, θ) plane. Variables include the distance (H) from the external boundary to the
cylinder surface, the free stream fluid temperature (T∞), and the uniform approach velocity (U∞).
sure and friction drag coefficients and/or heat transfer
rate. The use of this simple model enables the degree
of complexity of the non-Newtonian effects to be kept
at a tractable level, well-suited for the study of the
simplest and also the most common type of non-
Newtonian behavior, i.e., shear-thinning behavior (n <
1) and shear-thickening behavior (n > 1). Thus, the
creeping flow of power-law fluids past an unconfined
circular cylinder has been investigated by Tanner,19 who
demonstrated that, in the limit of zero Reynolds num-
ber, the Stokes paradox is removed for shear-thinning
fluids but not for shear-thickening fluids. Subsequently,
a similar inference was also reported by Marǔsić-
Paloka.20 Tanner19 also supplemented his analytical
results with numerical predictions for values of the
power-law index from 0.4 to 0.9; the correspondence
between the two results was found to be reasonable.
Subsequently, these results have been extended to
values of the power-law index as low as n ) 0.2,21 and
these new results are consistent with the previous
results for spheres and cylinders. Apart from these
creeping flow analyses, as far as is known to us, there
have been only two studies of power-law fluid flow over
a circular cylinder at finite Reynolds numbers.22,23
D’Alessio and Pascal22 numerically investigated the
steady power-law flow around a cylinder at Reynolds
numbers Re ) 5, 20, and 40 and examined the depen-
dence of critical Reynolds number, wake length, separa-
tion angle, and drag coefficient on the value of the
power-law index for a fixed blockage ratio β ) 0.037,
where β is defined as the ratio between the cylinder
diameter and the distance H from the external boundary
to the cylinder surface (Figure 1). They reported that a
progressive increase in Reynolds number (Re) from 5
to 40 resulted in a decrease in the degree of convergence,
which restricted the range of power-law indices for
which a fully converged numerical solution was possible
from 0.65 to 1.2 at Re ) 5 to 0.95-1.1 at Re ) 40.
Subsequently, Chhabra et al.23 extended the work of
D’Alessio and Pascal22 to include a wide range of
conditions (β ) 0.037, 0.082, and 0.164; Re ) 1, 20, and
40; and 0.2 e n e 1.4). However, in both these studies,
only the values of the total drag coefficient were re-
ported, and hence, further work is still needed to deter-
mine the effect of the power-law index on the individual
pressure and frictional drag coefficients. Coelho and
Pinho24,25 undertook a detailed experimental study of
the flow characteristics of various vortex shedding
regimes for the flow of non-Newtonian fluids around a
cylinder at Re ) 50-9000 and reported that shear
thinning resulted in decreased cylinder boundary-layer
thickness and diffusion length. Aside from these studies,
some effort has also been directed at studying the mo-
mentum and thermal boundary-layer flows of power-
law fluids over a circular cylinder, and these have been
reviewed elsewhere.26 Similarly, there have been a few
experimental studies dealing with the forced convection
heat transfer from a circular cylinder to streaming non-
Newtonian fluids,27-32 but most of these relate either
to very high values of Reynolds number and/or to
the flow of viscoelastic or drag-reducing polymer solu-
tions.33 Admittedly, these studies are not of direct
interest here, but these are mentioned here for the sake
of completeness. Finally, it is appropriate to mention
here that limited results on drag and heat transfer from
square cylinders to power-law fluids were reported
recently.34
In summary, while scant numerical results are avail-
able on the total drag of circular cylinders in power-
law fluids at finite Reynolds numbers, no information
is available on the individual drag components and on
the forced convection heat transfer from circular cylin-
ders to power-law fluids. The present work thus aims
to fill these gaps in the existing literature and to
numerically solve the momentum and heat transfer
equations for steady power-law flow across a long,
heated circular cylinder over a range of power-law
indices (0.5 e n e 1.4), Reynolds numbers 5 e Re e 40,
and Prandtl numbers Pr ) 1, 5, 25, 50, and 100, in order
to determine the Nusselt number and related param-
eters, map the isothermal lines, and also extend the
work of Chhabra et al.23 and investigate the effect of
the power-law index on both the pressure and frictional
drag coefficients. A blockage value of β ) 0.037 was
selected for this work because it corresponds to asymp-
totic boundary conditions at 54.6 radii away from the
cylinder surface,23 a distance which is regarded to be
sufficient to ensure that the flow and heat transfer at
this surface are insensitive to boundary effect and,
therefore, models the flow of an unbounded fluid across
the heated cylinder surface.
2. Basic Equations
Consider the steady flow of an incompressible power-
law fluid with a constant far away streaming velocity
(U∞) and temperature (T∞), along the x direction normal
to the axis of a circular cylinder (Figure 1a). Since the
present study is restricted to long cylinders and flow
conditions of Re e 40, the flow across the cylinder is
steady and two-dimensional; i.e., all flow variables are
independent of the z- coordinate and are, therefore,
functions of cylindrical coordinates r and θ alone.
Furthermore, the thermophysical properties (density F,
heat capacity Cp, thermal conductivity k, and power-
law parameters K and n) are assumed to be independent
of temperature. Under these conditions, the momentum
and energy equations are not coupled. The equation of
continuity, the r and θ components of the equations of
motion, and the thermal energy (in the absence of
 Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., Vol. 44, No. 15, 2005 5817

viscous dissipation) in cylindrical coordinates35 can be (U∞/a)2I2, respectively. In eq 3, the temperature T is

expressed in their dimensionless stream function/vor- scaled in two different ways depending on the thermal
ticity formulation in terms of the polar coordinates (, boundary condition imposed at the cylinder surface, i.e.,
θ) with  ) ln(r/a), where a is the radius of the cylinder, at  ) 0 (see Figure 1). The two commonly used thermal
as follows, boundary conditions at  ) 0 are that of either a
constant temperature (Ts) or a constant heat flux (qs).
continuity equation Thus, for the constant temperature boundary condition,
1 ∂ ∂ψ ∂ ∂ψ the dimensionless temperature T is related to its
e ∂ ( )
e
∂θ
-
∂θ
ψ+ (
∂
)0 ) (1) dimensional counterpart as e-T(Ts - T∞), whereas, for
the constant heat flux boundary condition, the dimen-
sionless temperature T is related to its dimensional
-momentum component counterpart as e-Tqsa/k. The Reynolds number is

( )( ) defined as
2
∂ψ ∂ ψ ∂ψ ∂2ψ ∂ψ
- +ψ + +ψ )
∂θ ∂∂θ ∂ ∂θ2 ∂ F(2a)nU∞2-n
-
1 ∂p 2n - ∂ 
-
2 ∂ Re
e
∂ [
(e τrr) +
∂τrθ
∂
- τθθ (2a) ] Re )
K
where K denotes the power-law consistency index and
(8)

θ - momentum component n denotes the power-law index.

( ) ( )
The Prandtl number is defined as
∂ψ ∂2ψ ∂ψ ∂ψ ∂2ψ

( )
- + + + ψ )
∂θ ∂2 ∂ ∂ ∂∂θ CpK U∞ n-1

[ ]
Pr ) (9)
1 ∂p 2n -2 ∂ 2 ∂τθθ k 2a
- - e (e τrθ) + (2b)
2 ∂θ Re ∂ ∂θ Eliminating the pressure in eq 2 by the usual method
energy equation of crossdifferentiation with the introduction of the

( )
vorticity ω, followed by some rearrangement, leads to
2 2
eRePr ∂ψ

( )
∂ T ∂ T ∂T
+ - 2 + + ∂2ω ∂2ω ∂ω ∂ω
∂2 ∂θ2 ∂ 2 ∂θ η + 2 + 2λ + 2µ + γω ) F (10a)
( )) ( ) ∂2 ∂θ ∂ ∂θ
∂T eRePr ∂ψ eRePr ∂ψ
∂θ 2
ψ+ (
∂
+T 1+
2 ∂θ
) 0 (3)
where
where p, Re, and Pr are the dimensionless pressure, the
∂η Re‚e ∂ψ
Reynolds number, and the Prandlt number, respec- λ) - η - n+1 (10b)
tively. ∂ 2 ∂θ
The dimensionless components of the extra stress
∂η Re‚e ∂ψ
tensor for a power-law fluid are written as
µ)
∂θ
+ n+1
2 ∂(+ψ ) (10c)
τij ) -ηij (4)
∂η Re‚e ∂ψ
where η is the dimensionless viscosity and ij are the γ)-2 +η+ n (10d)
∂ 2 ∂θ
dimensionless components of the rate-of-deformation

( )( )
tensor (e.g., ref 35).
The equation for the dimensionless power-law viscos- ∂2ψ ∂2ψ ∂2η ∂2η ∂η
F) ψ- 2
+ 2 2
- 2+2 -
ity is ∂ ∂θ ∂θ ∂ ∂

η ) I2(n-1)/2 (5) 4
∂2ψ ∂η
-
∂2 η
∂θ∂ ∂θ ∂θ∂ (
(10e) )
where I2 is the dimensionless second invariant of the The exponential scaling for the stream function, the
rate-of-deformation tensor given as vorticity, and the temperature is appropriate since the
stream function is exponentially large far from the

[( ∂2ψ ∂2ψ
) ( )] cylinder, the vorticity is exponentially small everywhere
2
∂2 ψ 2
I2 ) e-2 ψ - + 2 +4 (6) except in the region of the wake, and the temperature
∂2 ∂θ ∂θ∂
decreases rapidly away from the cylinder. This scaling
procedure, used by D’Alessio and Pascal22 and Chhabra
The vorticity in its scaled form is given as et al.,23 is also employed in the present study because
it suppressed the numerical instabilities which typically
∂2ψ ∂2ψ ∂ψ occur for lower values of n.
2
+ 2+2 +ψ+ω)0 (7)
∂ ∂θ ∂ Due to the two-dimensional nature of the flow prob-
lem (x-y plane) and because the oncoming flow is in
In eqs 1-7, the dimensionless stream function ψ, the x direction, it is sufficient to consider the region y
vorticity ω, and pressure p are related to their dimen- g 0 and x2 + y2 g 1 only. Thus, the corresponding region
sional counterparts as eU∞aψ, e-(U∞/a)ω, and (U∞2F/ in the (, θ) plane is defined by  g 0 and 0 e θ e π
2)p, respectively. The dimensionless components of the (Figure 1).
extra stress tensor τij and the dimensionless second The physically realistic boundary conditions for this
invariant of the rate of deformation tensor I2 are related flow are expressed as follows. On the cylinder surface,
to their dimensional counterparts as K(U∞/a)nτij and i.e., at  ) 0, the usual no-slip condition is applied
5818 Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., Vol. 44, No. 15, 2005

∂ψ ∂ψ j ) is
where the dimensionless viscosity in real space (η
) )0 (11a) given as
∂ ∂θ
which together with eq 7 gives j ) hI2(n-1)/2
η (13)

∂2ψ and the dimensionless second invariant of the rate of

ψ ) 0 and ω ) - (11b)
∂2 deformation tensor in real space (Ih2) is obtained through
the insertion into eq 6 of ψ ) e-ψ h , where ψ
h is the
The two commonly used thermal boundary conditions dimensionless stream function in real space. Inserting
at the surface of the solid cylinder are scaled as eq 13 into eq 12a gives

T)1 (11c) 2n+1

CDF ) -
Re
∫0π (Ih2(n-1)/2 ω))0 sin(θ) dθ (14)
for the constant temperature condition and
From ref 38,
∂T
)T-1
[ ]
(11d)
∂ 2n+1 jωj)
∫0θ
∂(η
p|)0 ) p0 + dθ (15)
for the constant heat flux condition, where the dimen- Re ∂ )0

sionless temperature (T) used in the present study is where p0 is the dimensionless stagnation pressure and
related to the previously used34,36,37 dimensionless tem- j is the dimensionless vorticity in real space, i.e.,
ω
perature in real space (Th ) as T ) eTh.
On the plane of symmetry at θ ) 0, π, we use the
j ) e-ω
ω (16)
following:
Equations 13 and 16 are inserted into eq 15 which is
∂T
ψ)ω) )0 (11e) then used to integrate eq 12b by parts, giving
∂θ
2n+1
Far away from the cylinder surface, for ∞ ) 4, we use CDP )
Re
∫0π [∂∂ (e-hI2(n-1)/2 ω)])0 sin(θ) dθ (17)
the asymptotic approximation for stream function and
vorticity given by Chhabra et al.,23
which is rearranged as

[
CD - θ
ψ ≈ sin(θ) +
2
e
π (
- erf(Q) ) (11f)
CDP )
2n+1
Re
∫0π (Ih2(n-1)/2))0 (∂ω
∂
- ω) +

ω≈-
CDReI2
2n+1xπ
(1-n)/2
Qe-Q
2
(11g)
n - 1 1 ∂Ih2
2 hI2 ∂
ω ])0
sin(θ) dθ (18)

where CD is the drag coefficient, The total drag coefficient,

CD ) CDF + CDP (19)

x
Re (1-n)/4 θ
Q)e /2

2
I
n 2
sin
2 () (11h)
is obtained from eqs 14 and 18.
The rate of heat transfer is usually expressed in terms
and erf(Q) is the standard error function. of the Nusselt number. The local Nusselt number on
The far away stream temperature boundary condi- the cylinder surface is defined by36,37
tions are

T ) 0 and
∂T
∂
)0 (11i)
Nu(θ) ) -2 (∂T∂rjh ) rj)1
) -2 (∂T∂ - T) )0
(20)

for the constant temperature boundary condition (iso-

The system of elliptic partial differential eqs 3, 7, and thermal cylinder surface) and by
10, together with the corresponding boundary conditions
(eq 11), has been discretized using the finite difference
method. The resulting system of algebraic equations has
been solved using an iterative Gauss-Seidel relaxation
Nu(θ) )
h(2a) 2
k
)
T | )0
(21)

method. Once the values of ω, ψ, and T are computed for the constant heat flux boundary condition, where rj
in the flow domain, the coefficients of frictional drag ) e and T ) eTh.
CDF, pressure drag CDP, total drag CD, local Nusselt The surface averaged value of the Nusselt number is
number Nu(θ), and average Nusselt number Nu can be given by
determined from the corresponding equations. The
equations for the pressure and frictional drag coef-
ficients are obtained as follows Nu )
1
π
∫0π Nu(θ) dθ (22)

2n+1
CDF ) -
Re
∫0π (ηj ω))0 sin(θ) dθ (12a)
3. Numerical Solution Method
The numerical solution procedure used here is an
CDP ) - ∫0π
(p))0 cos(θ) dθ (12b)
iterative Gauss-Seidel relaxation method already used
in an earlier study,23 and to avoid redundancy only the
 Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., Vol. 44, No. 15, 2005 5819

main features are included here. For the discretization Table 1. Comparison of Present Results with Literature
of eqs 3, 5, 7, and 10, a finite difference method was Values of Drag Coefficient (CD), Separation Angle (θs),
employed. A second-order upwind differencing technique Dimensionless Wake Length (L/a), and Surface-Averaged
Nusselt Number (Nu) for Newtonian Fluids (Reynolds
is used to solve eqs 3 and 10 with one-sided difference Number Re and Prandtl Number Pr ) 0.715)
approximations to the convective terms of T and ω,
whereas for the diffusion terms, the central difference Re CD θs L/a Nu authors
approximation was used. For all other terms in these 5 3.95 1.46 present results
equations, central difference approximations have been 4.116 Dennis and Chang2
employed, except for the first derivative of ψ in the 4.0a 1.39b Lange et al.6
10 2.76 29.2° 0.50 1.86 present results
direction of , which was determined using the second- 2.846 29.6° 0.53 Dennis and Chang2
order forward difference approximation. This forward 1.86 Mandhani et al.36
difference approximation is necessary to obtain conver- 2.8c 1.81b Lange et al.6
gence for n e 0.6. Equations 5 and 7 are rewritten as 20 1.99 43.5° 1.85 2.43 present results
finite difference equations using the central difference 2.045 43.7° 1.88 Dennis and Chang2
of second-order accuracy. The resulting system of equa- 2.0001 1.82 Fornberg3
2.0c 2.41b Lange et al.6
tions is solved using a Gauss-Seidel iterative method 1.99 43.24° 1.79 2.4121 Juncu7
with an under-relaxation factor of 0.8 to the tempera- 30 1.67 49.5° 3.20 2.85 present results
ture and vorticity variables. To obtain consistent ap- 1.7167 49.6° 3.223 Takami and Keller8
proximations for ψ, ω, and T, for each iteration a sweep 2.88 b Lange et al.6
is made through all mesh points and updated values of 40 1.49 53.4° 4.55 3.20 present results
1.522 53.8° 4.69 Dennis and Chang2
the drag coefficient CD and the Nusselt number Nu,
1.4980 4.48 Fornberg3
which correspond to each of the two thermal surface 1.5c 3.28b Lange et al.6
boundary conditions, are determined by numerical a Evaluated from Figure 6 of ref 6. b Evaluated from eq 18 of
integration of eqs 19-21 on the cylinder surface using
ref 6. c Evaluated from Figure 8 of ref 6.
Simpson’s rule. Note that the solutions of the temper-
ature fields defined by the two thermal surface bound-
ary conditions are obtained simultaneously. Conver- shown herein, it is necessary to validate the numerical
gence was achieved when, for the same iteration, the solution procedure used in this study. The case of
variation in CD and Nu values in two successive itera- Newtonian flow, n ) 1, past a cylinder was used as the
tions was less than a preset value of 10-8. To accelerate initial test of the numerical solution procedure. For the
the convergence of the numerical solution, the Newto- range of Re numbers used in this study and a Prandtl
nian steady solution values of ψ, ω, and T at every point number Pr ) 0.715 (corresponding to the flow of air),
of the grid were used as the initial guesses for non- the numerical values of CD, separation angle θs, dimen-
Newtonian flow. sionless wake length L/a, and average Nusselt number
The outer boundary was positioned at ∞ ) 4, corre- Nu for the constant temperature boundary condition
sponding to asymptotic boundary conditions at a dis- were all found to be in excellent agreement with
tance of ∼54.6 radii away from the cylinder. For a (N + previous results available in the literature for Newto-
1) × (M + 1) computational grid, the spacings in the nian fluids (Table 1). Because for a blockage ratio β )
radial  and angular θ directions are ∞/N and π/M, 0.037 and Re ) 20 and 40 the dependences on the
respectively. For the choice of appropriate grid, ad- power-law index of the total drag and the streamline
ditional tests were carried out for the largest Reynolds and isovorticity patterns are identical to those already
and Prandtl numbers (Re ) 40 and Pr ) 100) for 0.5 e reported in a previous study,23 their detailed comparison
n e 1.4. Initial tests carried out using three grids (mesh with the original results of D’Alessio and Pascal22 is not
sizes 101 × 51, 201 × 101, and 401 × 101) showed that repeated here. As far as is known to us for power-law
the gain in accuracy of the drag coefficient and average fluids, no numerical heat transfer results for flow across
Nusselt number which resulted from the use of the a circular cylinder using a fixed blockage ratio are
finest grid (401 × 101) was overall <2%. Weighing the available for validation. However, to strengthen the
marginal differences in the values of the drag coef- reliability of our results, additional tests for a collection
ficients and average Nusselt numbers obtained with the of cylinders within the framework of the free surface
401 × 101 grid against the disproportionately large cell model were carried out to validate the numerical
increase in CPU time, the 201 × 101 grid was consid- method used in the present study to determine the
ered adequate for the present study since it provided solution of the energy equation. For the first test, the
sufficient numerical resolution. Newtonian flow over a collection of cylinders at constant
temperature was simulated using the conditions in
4. Results and Discussion Table 1 of Mangadoddy et al.,37 i.e., n ) 1; Re ) 1; 10 e
In the present study, the momentum and thermal Pe e 500; voidages e ) 0.4, 0.5, and 0.6; and a 101 × 51
energy equations have been solved numerically in the grid. A discrepancy of <2.5% was observed relative to
following range of conditions: 5 e Re e 40; Pr ) 1, 5, the average Nusselt number values reported by Man-
25, 50, and 100; and 0.5 e n e 1.4 for the two commonly gadoddy et al.37 For the second test, the power-law flow
used thermal boundary conditions. Extensive results on over a collection of cylinders was simulated to determine
the detailed temperature fields, the local (Nu(θ)) and the average Nusselt number values for conditions of Re
surface-averaged (Nu) values of the Nusselt number, ) 1, Pe ) 500, and e ) 0.9. The discrepancy between
and the drag coefficients (CD, CDF, and CDP) have been the values obtained from the present numerical method
obtained to help elucidate the non-Newtonian effects of and those obtained from the analytical expressions of
the power-law fluids in the aforementioned range of Ferreira and Chhabra39 for creeping flow increased from
conditions. 0.4% at n ) 1 to 3.8% at n ) 0.6. This is perhaps not
4.1. Validation of Results. Prior to undertaking the surprising, owing to the assumptions inherent in their
detailed presentation and discussion of the new results approximation analysis.
5820 Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., Vol. 44, No. 15, 2005
Figure 2. Variation of (a) CDF, (b) CDP, and (c) CD with Re and n.
4.2. Dependence of the Drag Coefficient on Re
and n. The hydrodynamic drag force exerted by the
fluid on the solid cylinder is determined by the indi-
vidual contributions due to the pressure and frictional
forces acting on the cylinder and can be expressed in
terms of three dimensionless groups, namely, the drag
coefficients (frictional drag CDF, pressure drag CDP, and
total drag CD), the Reynolds number Re, and the power-
law index n. The dependence of the drag coefficients on
the two other dimensionless groups is shown in Figure
2. The results showed that an increase in the power-
law index caused an overall increase in the frictional
drag as the fluid behavior transitioned from shear-
thinning to Newtonian and finally to shear-thickening
behavior. Also, the dependence of the frictional drag on
the power-law index was more pronounced at higher
Reynolds numbers (Figure 2a). Such an increase in the
dependence has also been reported for a square cylin-
der34 and is consistent with an increase in the general
level of shearing for higher Reynolds number values,
thereby resulting in higher levels of effective viscosity
for larger values of n, which in turn influences the
frictional component of the drag. Conversely, an in-
crease in the power-law index caused a decrease in
pressure drag, and the dependence of the pressure drag
on the power-law index became less pronounced at
higher Reynolds numbers (Figure 2b). Similar effects
have previously been reported for square cylinders34 and
for spherical and spheroidal particles translating in
power-law fluids.40,41 The present results further showed
that the increased dependence of CDF on the power-law
index at higher Re, combined with the decreased
dependence of CDP under the same conditions, resulted
in a Re (Re ) 15 ( 5) at which the dependence of the
total drag on the power-law index was minimal (Figure
2c). Increased shear thinning resulted in an increase
in total drag for Re < 15 ( 5, whereas for Re > 15 ( 5,
the opposite effect was observed (Figure 2c). Such effects
stem from the significant frictional contribution to the
overall drag, which at Re ) 5 ranged from 36.1% at n
) 0.5 to 48.8% at n ) 1.4 and remained significant even
at Re ) 40, where it ranged from 21.8% at n ) 0.5 to
40.1% at n ) 1.4. However, a similar effect was not
observed by Gupta et al.,34 who reported that increased
shear thinning resulted in increased total drag up to
Re ) 40, a result which is consistent with their numer-
ical findings of a much less significant frictional con-
tribution to the overall drag for a square cylinder
(30-45% at Re ) 5 and 0.5-0.21% at Re ) 40). Such a
significant difference in the frictional contribution can-
not be attributed to the higher blockage ratio of β )
0.143 used by Gupta et al.,34 because (although the
present results for a circular cylinder were obtained
using β ) 0.037) additional checks using a higher
blockage ratio of β ) 0.164 showed that the relative
weight of the frictional contribution remained almost
unchanged (36.3-48.7% at Re ) 5 and 21.7-39.7% at
Re ) 40). It can, thus, be concluded that the more
significant frictional contribution to the overall drag
which was observed in the present study of a circular
cylinder was due to its different geometrical configura-
tion relative to a square cylinder as used by Gupta et
al.,34 where pressure forces play a more dominant role
than that in the case of a circular cylinder.
4.3. Heat Transfer Characteristics. Besides the
dependence on the power-law index n and Reynolds
number Re, the heat transfer characteristics are also
dependent on the Prandtl number Pr and on the type
of thermal boundary condition applied to the cylinder’s
surface, i.e., constant temperature or constant heat flux.
For the constant heat flux boundary condition, the
effects of the power-law index on the local Nusselt
number Nu(θ) were more pronounced but otherwise
similar to those for the constant temperature boundary
condition; therefore, only the latter are shown herein.
The study of these effects showed that the local Nusselt
number always increased with Pr and/or Re (Figures 3
and 4). A maximum value in Nu(θ) was located close to
the front stagnation point, and its peak value was found
to increase with shear thinning (Figures 3 and 4). For
highly shear-thinning fluids (e.g., n ) 0.5), an increase
in Prandtl number from Pr ) 1 to Pr ) 100 always
resulted in a downstream shift in the position of this
maximum (Figures 3 and 4). Moreover, under the same
shear-thinning condition (i.e., n ) 0.5), an increase in
Reynolds number from Re ) 5 to Re ) 40 also resulted
in a downstream shift in the position of this maximum
at lower Prandtl numbers (e.g., Pr ) 1), whereas at
higher Prandtl numbers (e.g., Pr ) 100), the position of
the maximum shifted upstream (Figures 3 and 4). It was

Figure 3. Effect of the power-law index (n) on the local Nusselt
number Nu(θ) at Re ) 5, using the constant temperature boundary
condition on the cylinder surface for (a) Pr ) 1 and (b) Pr ) 100
(downstream θ ) 0° and upstream θ ) 180°).
also found that, at Re ) 5, the minimum value of the
local Nusselt number was located close to the rear of
the cylinder for both Pr ) 1 and Pr ) 100 (Figure 3).
However, an increase in both the Reynolds and Prandtl
numbers up to Re ) 40 and Pr ) 100 resulted in an
upstream shift in the position of this minimum, which
also became more pronounced (Figures 3 and 4). At the
point at which Nu(θ) was at its maximum for highly
shear-thinning fluids, the dependence of Nu(θ) on the
power-law index was also strongest. Conversely, at the
point where Nu(θ) was at its minimum, this dependence
was quite weak (Figures 3 and 4). Unfortunately, there
are no results from the literature with which to compare
the dependence of the local Nusselt number on the
power-law index, and even for the Newtonian case, it
is difficult to establish a meaningful comparison be-
tween the present theoretical results obtained at Pr )
1 using a blockage ratio of β ) 0.037 and the previous
experimental (e.g., ref 4) or theoretical (e.g., ref 36)
results obtained using a different Prandtl number (Pr
) 0.74) and other different conditions such as finite
Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., Vol. 44, No. 15, 2005 5821
Figure 4. Effect of the power-law index (n) on the local Nusselt
number Nu(θ) at Re ) 40, using the constant temperature
boundary condition on the cylinder surface for (a) Pr ) 1 and (b)
Pr ) 100 (downstream θ ) 0° and upstream θ ) 180°).
cylinder length with the presence of wall effects, a
voidage ratio of 0.99, etc. Probably because of these
factors, the local Nusselt number curves obtained in the
present study for Pr ) 1 differed in shape from those of
the aforementioned studies, although some general
features present therein4,36 and shown in Figure 8 of
ref 36, e.g., maximum and minimum Nusselt number
values close to the front and rear ends of the cylinder,
respectively, upstream shift in position of the minimum
with increasing Reynolds number, and increase in local
Nusselt number with Reynolds number, were also
observed in the present investigation of the variation
of local Nusselt number across the cylinder surface.
However, the extent of this variation is determined by
a complex interplay between the kinematic (Re and Pr)
and physical characteristics (β and n) of the system, and
to better understand the effect of these characteristics
on heat transfer, it is both useful and convenient to use
the mean value of the Nusselt number (averaged over
5822 Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., Vol. 44, No. 15, 2005
Figure 5. Variation of surface-averaged Nusselt number (Nu)
with Re and n, using the constant temperature boundary condition
on the cylinder surface for (a) Pr ) 1 and (b) Pr ) 100.
the surface), Nu, and, thus, to eliminate one variable
from the process. The results for the surface-averaged
Nusselt number showed that, from the standpoint of
heat transfer, the constant heat flux boundary condition
was more efficient than the constant temperature
boundary condition (Figures 5 and 6), consistent with
results already obtained for the local Nusselt number.
For both the aforementioned boundary conditions, an
increase in Re and/or Pr, a decrease in the power-law
index, or both caused an increase in the value of Nu
(Figures 5 and 6). Such an increase in Nu is also
consistent with that already observed for Nu(θ) and can
be explained in terms of the increase in the contribution
of convection to the heat transfer, which results from
an increase in Peclet number Pe ) Re‚Pr. Likewise, a
decrease in the value of n causes a decrease in the
effective viscosity and, therefore, increased convection,
again resulting in a larger Nu. The present results also
showed an increase in the dependence of Nu on the
power-law index for larger values of Pe (Figures 5 and
6). For instance, for the constant temperature boundary
condition and Pr ) 1, an increase in the level of shear
thickening from n ) 0.5 to n ) 1.4 resulted in a decrease
in Nu of 9.3% at Re ) 5 and 18.1% at Re ) 40 (Figure
5a); whereas for Pr ) 100, the value of Nu decreases by
Figure 6. Variation of surface-averaged Nusselt number (Nu)
with Re and n, using the constant heat flux boundary condition
on the cylinder surface for (a) Pr ) 1 and (b) Pr ) 100.
24.2% at Re ) 5 and 26% at Re ) 40 (Figure 5b). For
the constant heat flux boundary condition, the corre-
sponding decreases in Nu for Pr ) 1 are 11.4% at Re )
5 and 20.5% at Re ) 40 (Figure 6a), while for Pr ) 100,
they are 23.6% at Re ) 5 and 26.7% at Re ) 40. Since
heat transfer by conduction is independent of fluid
viscosity, the aforementioned observations showing an
increased dependence of the Nusselt number on the
power-law index for larger values of Pe are consistent
with the decrease in the contribution of conduction to
heat transfer, which results from an increase in the
Peclet number. Notwithstanding the importance of the
surface-averaged Nusselt number (Nu) as a design
parameter, to further elucidate the effect of the power-
law index on the heat transfer process at different
Prandtl numbers, the surface-averaged Nusselt number
for power-law fluids was normalized with respect to the
corresponding value for Newtonian fluids at the same
values of Pr and Re. The results for the normalized sur-
face-averaged Nusselt number Nu* using both the con-
stant temperature and constant heat flux boundary
conditions (Figures 7 and 8) paralleled those already
obtained for Nu under the same conditions (Figures 5
and 6), namely, the increase in both the value of Nu*

Figure 7. Effect of the power-law index (n) on the normalized
surface-averaged Nusselt number (Nu*) corresponding to various
values of Pr, using the constant temperature boundary condition
on the cylinder surface for (a) Re ) 5 and (b) Re ) 40.
and its dependence on the power-law index with in-
creased Pe and the increase in Nu* which resulted from
an increase in the level of shear thinning. The depen-
dence of Nu* on Pr was highly nonlinear. For instance,
from Pr ) 1 to Pr ) 50, there was a strong variation of
Nu* with Pr away from the Newtonian limit, whereas
from Pr ) 50 to Pr ) 100, Nu* became almost indepen-
dent of Pr at Re ) 5 (Figures 7a and 8a); it became even
more independent at Re ) 40 where, from Pr ) 50 to
Pr ) 100, the slight variation in Nu* was only noticeable
under highly shear-thickening conditions (see Figures
7b and 8b). Figures 7 and 8 further show that, for n <
1, Nu* was an increasing function of Pr, whereas for n
> 1, Nu* was a decreasing function of Pr, i.e., for n < 1,
the rate of increase of Nu with Pr was larger than that
for Newtonian fluids, whereas for n > 1, this rate of
increase was smaller than that for Newtonian fluids.
The trends seen in Figures 7 and 8 can qualitatively be
explained as follows: since both the Reynolds and
Prandtl numbers are functions of the kinematic and
rheological properties due to the power-law viscosity,
defined as K(v/2a)n-1, it is not possible to isolate the role
Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., Vol. 44, No. 15, 2005 5823
Figure 8. Effect of the power-law index (n) on the normalized
surface-averaged Nusselt number (Nu*) corresponding to various
values of Pr, using the constant heat flux boundary condition on
the cylinder surface for (a) Re ) 5 and (b) Re ) 40.
of the power-law index on heat transfer. This difficulty,
however, can be obviated by using the Reynolds and
Peclet (Pe ) Re × Pr) numbers instead of Re and Pr.
Figures 7 and 8 relate to the fixed values of Re and show
the effect of increasing Prandtl number. It can readily
be seen from the definition of Pe that the increasing Pr
implies increasing Pe, and for fixed values of F, K, and
a, the only way to achieve this is by increasing the
velocity. This in turn leads to enhanced levels of
shearing (≈ v/2a). For n < 1, this lowers the effective
viscosity, which facilitates heat transfer, and of course,
the reverse is true for n > 1. Finally, the use of Nu* as
a benchmarking criteria to study the effect of non-
Newtonian behavior on heat transfer characteristics
showed that the choice of the type of thermal boundary
condition (constant temperature or constant heat flux)
did not produce a significant impact on heat transfer
in power-law fluids (Figures 7 and 8).
Representative plots of the isotherms for both the
constant temperature (top half) and the constant heat
flux (bottom half) boundary conditions (Figures 9 and
10) showed that an increase in the Prandtl and/or
Reynolds numbers increased the asymmetry and com-
plexity of the aft contours relative to the fore contours
5824 Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., Vol. 44, No. 15, 2005
Figure 9. Effects of n and Pr on the isothermal lines for Re ) 5, using the constant temperature (top) and the constant heat flux (bottom)
boundary conditions on the cylinder surface (flow direction ) left to right).
and also compacted the isothermal lines, which resulted
in an increased temperature gradient overall. Moreover,
since the increase in the Prandtl and/or Reynolds
numbers increased the compactness of the isothermals
toward the upstream direction (Figures 9 and 10), it also
resulted in a more pronounced upstream increase in the
local temperature gradient along the cylinder surface,
consistent with the corresponding variation in Nusselt
number (Figures 3 and 4). The effects of the power-law
index on the temperature profiles also became more
pronounced at higher Prandtl and/or Reynolds numbers
(Figures 9 and 10). For both the constant temperature
and constant heat flux boundary conditions, increased
shear thinning resulted in an overall increase in the
compactness of the isothermals (Figures 9 and 10),
which increased the temperature gradient overall. Both
the present results for a circular cylinder and those of
Gupta et al.34 for the square cylinder showing an
increase in the overall temperature gradient with shear
thinning are in line with the previously predicted42,43
decrease in boundary layer thickness with increased
levels of shear thinning, which has recently been
confirmed experimentally for a circular cylinder.25 Be-
fore closing the discussion, it is appropriate to mention
the two main limitations underlying the results which
have been presented in this study. First, it needs to be
emphasized here that the governing equations are
highly nonlinear due to both the shear dependent
viscosity and the inertial terms. Hence, the assumption
of temperature-independent physical properties affords
a great simplification, as it does allow the momentum
and energy equations to be decoupled. Clearly, in the
absence of this assumption, this decoupling is not
possible. Besides, it should be borne in mind that these
are the very first set of results on this topic, and
naturally, these will get superseded by more realistic
fluid models and/or by considering temperature-depend-
ent properties and/or by including viscous dissipation
effects in future studies. It is suggested that, in the first
instance, the effect of the temperature-dependent vis-
cosity could be incorporated by using the same correc-
tion as that used for Newtonian fluids. Second, admit-
tedly most non-Newtonian materials exhibit much more
complex rheological behavior (especially viscoelasticity)
than that captured by the simple power-law fluid model
used herein. However, viscoelastic effects are generally
significant in transient flows and/or in severely confined
flows where extensional deformation can occur. In most
other situations, viscous effects dominate the macro-
scopic flow phenomena such as drag and heat transfer,
e.g., see refs 17, 18, and 44. For instance, for flow around
a sphere, when both shear thinning and viscoelasticity
are present, shear-thinning behavior dominates the
drag and convective heat- and mass-transfer behav-
ior.26,45 Therefore, it seems reasonable to start with the

Figure 10. Effects of the power-law index (n) and Prandtl number (Pr) on the isothermal lines for Re ) 40, using the constant temperature
(top) and the constant heat flux (bottom) boundary conditions on the cylinder surface (flow direction ) left to right).
simplest type of non-Newtonian behavior and to build
up the level of complexity gradually.
5. Conclusions
The non-Newtonian flow across a heated circular
cylinder was investigated numerically to determine the
hydrodynamic drag components and heat transfer char-
acteristics for a wide range of power-law indices (0.5 e
n e 1.4), Reynolds numbers (5 e Re e 40), and Prandtl
numbers (1 e Pr e 100). The study of flow parameters
showed that the frictional drag component increased
with the flow-behavior index n and that the dependence
of this component on n increased with Re. For Re e 15,
increased shear thinning increased the total drag,
whereas for Re g 15, it decreased the total drag. The
study of heat transfer showed that the constant heat
flux boundary condition was more efficient than the
constant temperature condition. For the latter condition,
the effect of the power-law index on the local Nusselt
number Nu(θ) was less pronounced than that for the
constant heat flux condition. A maximum value of Nu(θ)
was located close to the front stagnation point, and its
peak value was found to increase with shear thinning.
At the location where the maximum peaked, the depen-
dence of Nu(θ) on n was found to be strongest. The
surface-averaged Nusselt number Nu was found to be
a decreasing function of n, although for lower Peclet
Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., Vol. 44, No. 15, 2005 5825
numbers such dependence was found to be less pro-
nounced. The effects on isothermal patterns, which
result from an increase in Prandtl number and/or
Reynolds number, are qualitatively similar to those
which result from a decrease in the power-law index.
The faster decay in the temperature field for higher
Prandtl numbers and a lower power-law index suggests
a decrease of the thermal-boundary-layer thickness
under the aforementioned conditions.
Nomenclature
a ) radius of the cylinder (m)
CD ) drag coefficient
CDF ) friction drag coefficient
CDP ) pressure drag coefficient
Cp ) heat capacity (J/kg/K)
e ) voidage of cylinder assemblage
F ) dimensionless function, eq 10e
h ) heat transfer coefficient (W/m2 K)
H) distance from the external boundary to the cylinder
surface (m)
I2 ) dimensionless second invariant of the rate-of-deforma-
tion tensor
hI2 ) dimensionless second invariant of the rate-of-deforma-
tion tensor in real space
K ) power-law consistency index (Pa sn)
k ) thermal conductivity of the fluid (W/m K)
5826 Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., Vol. 44, No. 15, 2005
L ) wake length (m)
n ) power-law index
Nu ) average Nusselt number
Nu* ) average Nusselt number normalized with the
corresponding value for the Newtonian fluid
Nu(θ) ) local Nusselt number
p ) dimensionless pressure
p0 ) dimensionless stagnation pressure
Pe ) Peclet number
Pr ) Prandtl number
r ) cylindrical coordinate (m)
rj ) dimensionless radial component in real space
qs ) heat flux at the surface of the cylinder (W/m2)
Re ) Reynolds number ()F(2a)nU∞2-n/K)
U∞ ) uniform approach velocity (m/s)
T ) dimensionless temperature
h ) dimensionless temperature in real space
T Fluid Mech. 1985, 17, 145-155.
Ts ) temperature on the surface of the cylinder (K)
T∞ ) free stream fluid temperature (K)
vz ) z-component of velocity (m/s)
Greek Letters
γ ) dimensionless function, eq 10d
θ ) angle (radians)
θs ) separation angle (degrees)
λ ) dimensionless function, eq 10b
µ ) dimensionless function, eq 10c
ψ ) dimensionless stream function
h ) dimensionless stream function in real space
ψ (22) D’Alessio, S. J. D.; Pascal, J. P. Steady flow of a power-
η ) dimensionless viscosity
j ) dimensionless viscosity in real space
η (23) Chhabra, R. P.; Soares, A. A.; Ferreira, J. M. Steady non-
ω ) dimensionless vorticity
j ) dimensionless vorticity in real space
ω
F ) fluid density (kg/m3)
 ) dimensionless polar coordinate ()ln(r/a))
ij ) components of rate-of-deformation tensor (s-1)
τij ) dimensionless components of extra stress tensor
Subscripts
θ ) angular component
r ) radial component
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Received for review January 18, 2005
Revised manuscript received April 29, 2005
Accepted May 10, 2005
IE0500669