Natural Convective Coutte Flow in a Vertical Parallel Plate Microchannel

In the present paper, the exact analysis of steady state fully developed natural convective
Couette flow in a vertical parallel plate microchannel is performed. Exact solutions are derived for the
dimensionless velocity, temperature, volume flow rate, vertical heat flux and Nusselt number. The
effects of Grashof number, wall-ambient temperature difference ratio and Knudsen number on the
velocity, volume flow rate and Nusselt number have been discussed through graphs. The study
revealed that the fluid velocity and volume flow rate increases with increasing Grashof number
whereas the Nusselt number decreases with increasing Grashof number.