Free-forced convection from a heated longitudinal horizontal cylinder

Finite difference solutions of a longitudinal three-dimensional boundary layer along a heated horizontal cylinder are presented for Pr = 1 and 10. The numerical results are compared with earlier asymptotic solutions. The comparison shows that the asymptotic solution is valid only for a narrow region close to the leading edge. Downstream from this narrow region, the asymptotic solution overpredicts the buoyancy effect along the bottom of the cylinder and underpredicts it along the top. The numerical solutions indicate that the flow becomes free-convection dominant far downstream from the leading edge when Gr/Re squared is small.