Heat transfer enhancement for boundary layer flow over a wedge by the use of electric fields

The effect of an electric field is investigated for heat transfer properties in a laminar, incompressible, non-isothermal boundary layer gas flow over a wedge. The governing boundary layer equations are reduced to an ordinary differential equation system using similarity transformations. The reduced equations are solved numerically for different values of electric and flow field parameters characterizing the ratio of electric force to fluid inertia force, Joule heating and ion kinetic work. For specific electric field function forms, leading to similarity solutions, velocity boundary layers are observed to become thinner and heat transfer properties are shown to be enhanced near the wall. The level of enhancement is controlled by the electric body force with additional effects of Joule heating and ion kinetic work on the bulk flow. The effects of low and high Prandtl numbers are also demonstrated. Heat transfer enhancement is observed to increase with increasing Prandtl number.