NATURAL CONVECTION OVER AN ISOTHERMAL VERTICAL SURFACE IMMERSED IN A THERMALLY STRATIFIED FLUID.

A similarity solution, based on the results from an integral solution, is obtained for a natural convection flow on a heated isothermal wall suspended in a quiescent atmosphere with temperature linearly increasing with height. The solutions are found to be independent of the gradient of the ambient temperature with a proper choice of variables. Results are presented for dimensionless profiles of the temperature, vertical velocity, and horizontal velocity in the boundary layer. Local temperature defect and flow reversal are predicted consistent with previous analyses. In general, qualitative agreement was observed with results obtained by earlier investigators.