Joule-heating effects on unsteady natural convection from a heatedvertical plate in a micropolar fluid

A boundary-layer solution is presented to study the effects of viscous and Joule heating on unsteady natural convection flow in a micropolar fluid. Viscous dissipation has been retained as a first-order term. Numerical results for the unsteady boundary-layer equations have been obtained at any point along the vertical plate using the finite-difference method. Details of the velocity, microrotation, and temperature fields are presented for various material parameters.PACS Nos.: 44.25+F, 47.27-i, and 47.27Te