Natural convection flow from an isothermal horizontal circular cylinder in presence of heat generation

Natural convection laminar boundary layer flow from a horizontal circular cylinder with a uniform surface temperature at presence of heat generation has been investigated. The governing boundary layer equations are transformed into a non-dimensional form and the resulting nonlinear systems of partial differential equations are solved numerically applying two distinct methods namely (i) implicit finite difference method together with the Keller box scheme and (ii) series solution technique. The results of the surface shear stress in terms of the local skin friction and the surface rate of heat transfer in terms of the local Nusselt number for a selection of the heat generation parameter γ (= 0.0, 0.2, 0.5, 0.8, 1.0) are obtained and presented in both tabular and graphical formats. Without effect of the internal heat generation inside the fluid domain for which we take γ = 0.0, the present numerical results show an excellent agreement with those of Merkin [J.H. Merkin, Free convection boundary layer on an isothermal horizontal circular cylinders, in: ASME/AIChE, Heat Transfer Conference, St. Louis, MO, August 9–11, 1976]. The effects of γ on the fluid velocity, temperature distribution, streamlines and isotherms are examined.