Correlating convection heat transfer for Falkner-Skan flow

Abstract Forced convection heat transfer in a laminar Falkner-Skan boundary layer flow with constant wall temperature is considered over a wide range of pressure gradient parameter β and entire range of Prandtl number Pr . A new asymptotic behavior for the Nusselt number Nu x for large β and arbitrary Pr is discovered by examining the dependence of the ratio of the heat transfer for arbitrary Pr to its small Pr limit on Pr / β . Correlations for Nu x are developed for −0.19883774 ≤  β Pr for boundary layer flows without flow reversal. The thermal boundary layer for point-sink flow, which is the limiting case of Falkner-Skan problem as β  → ∞, is analyzed. The peculiar behavior of Nu x  = 0 as β  → ∞ in the Falkner-Skan thermal problem is caused by the loss of self-similarity for the solution of boundary layer temperature in the point-sink flow.