Laminar free convection from a vertical plate with uniform surface heat flux in chemically reacting systems

Two-dimensional steady laminar free convection from a vertical plate with uniform surface heat flux rate is studied in a gas where a reversible very fast reaction of dissociation A <----> 2B takes place at atmospheric pressure. The effective thermophysical properties of the gas in the interval of dissociation are evaluated and the governing boundary-layer equations are solved numerically by a finite-difference method with control volume formulation for a wide range of values of the independent variables which have a significant influence on the phenomenon. In the case of undisturbed fluid temperature T-infinity smaller than T-0.5, corresponding to a rate of dissociation alpha = 0.5, three different heat transfer regimes, marked by two critical heat fluxes, may be distinguished as the surface heat flux rate increases. The theoretical results obtained for the critical heat fluxes as well as the coefficient of convection are expressed in terms of correlations among dimensionless parameters defined through the mixture effective properties. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.