Abstract

In the present investigation, we study the propagation of plane waves in heat conducting micropolar fluid. The phase velocity, attenuation coefficient, specific loss, and penetration depth are computed numerically and depicted graphically. In addition, the fundamental solutions of the system of differential equations in case of steady oscillations are constructed. Some basic properties of the fundamental solution and special cases are also discussed.

1. Introduction

Eringen [1] developed the theory of microfluids, in which microfluids possess three gyration vector fields in addition to its classical translatory degrees of freedom represented by velocity field. Eringen introduced the micropolar fluids [2] which are subclass of these fluids, in which the local fluid elements possess rigid rotations without stretch. Micropolar fluids can support couple stress, the body couples, and asymmetric stress tensor and possess a rotational field, which is independent of the velocity of fluid. Anisotropic fluids, liquid crystals with rigid molecules, magnetic fluids, cloud with dust, muddy fluids, biologicaltropic fluids, and dirty fluids (dusty air and snow) over airfoil can be modeled more realistically as micropolar fluids. Ariman et al. [3, 4] studied microcontinuum fluid mechanics. Říha [5] discussed the theory of heat conducting micropolar fluid with microtemperature. Eringen and Kafadar [6] developed polar field theories. Brulin [7] discussed linear micropolar media. Flow and heat transfer in a micropolar fluid past with suction and heat sources were discussed by Agarwal and Dhanapal [8]. Payne and Straughan [9] investigated critical Rayleigh numbers for oscillatory and nonlinear convection in an isotropic thermomicropolar fluid. Gorla [10] studied combined forced and free convection in the boundary layer flow of a micropolar fluid on a continuous moving vertical cylinder. Eringen [11] investigated the theory of microstretch and bubbly liquids. Aydemir and Venart [12] investigated the flow of a thermomicropolar fluid with stretch. Yerofeyev and Soldatov [13] discussed a shear surface wave at the interface of an elastic body and a micropolar liquid. The theory of elastic and viscoelastic micropolar liquids was studied by Yeremeyev and Zubov [14]. Hsia and Cheng [15] discussed longitudinal plane waves propagation in elastic micropolar porous media. Hsia et al. [16] studied propagation of transverse waves in elastic micropolar porous semispaces.

Construction of fundamental solution of systems of partial differential equations is necessary to investigate the boundary value problems of the theory of elasticity and thermoelasticity. The fundamental solutions in the classical theory of coupled thermoelasticity were firstly studied by Hetnarski [17, 18]. Hetnarski and Ignaczak [19] studied generalized thermoelasticity. Svanadze [20–25] constructed the fundamental solutions in the microcontinuum field theories. Kumar and Kansal [26] investigated the fundamental solution in the theory of thermomicrostretch elastic diffusive solids. Fundamental solution in the theory of micropolar thermoelastic diffusion with voids was studied by Kumar and Kansal [27]. Recently, Kumar and Kansal [28] discussed plane waves and fundamental solution in the generalized theories of thermoelastic diffusion. Kumar and Kansal [29] studied propagation of plane waves and fundamental solution in the theories of thermoelastic diffusive materials with voids. The information related to fundamental solutions of differential equations is contained in the books of Hörmander [30, 31].

The main objective of the present paper is to study the propagation of plane waves in heat conducting micropolar fluid. Several qualitative characterizations of the wave field, such as phase velocity, attenuation coefficient, specific loss, and penetration depth, are computed and depicted graphically for different values of frequency. The representation of fundamental solution of system of equations in the case of steady oscillations is obtained in terms of elementary functions. Some particular cases have also been deduced.

2. Basic Equations

In three-dimensional space , let be the points of the Euclidean space, represents the time variable, and .

Following Ciarletta [32], the basic equations for homogeneous, isotropic heat conducting micropolar fluids without body forces, body couples, and heat sources are given by wherewhere , , , , , , and are material constants of the fluid. and are the velocity vector and microrotation velocity vector, is the density, is a scalar constant with the dimension of moment of inertia of unit mass, is the thermal conductivity, is the specific heat at constant strain, is the absolute temperature, is the temperature change, is the variation in specific volume, , where is the coefficient of linear thermal expansion, and is the Laplacian operator.

For convenience, the following nondimensional quantities are introduced:where is the characteristic frequency of the medium.

Making use of (2) and (3) in basic equations (1) and after suppressing the primes, we obtainMaking use of (7) in (4), we obtainwhereFor two-dimensional problem, we takeThe relation between dimensionless velocity components and and nondimensional velocity potential functions and is expressed asMaking use of (10)-(11) in (5), (6), and (8), we obtainwhere .

3. Solution of Plane Waves

For plane harmonic waves, we assume the solution of the formwhere is the circular frequency and is the complex wave number. are undetermined amplitude vectors that are independent of time and coordinates . and are the direction cosines of the wave normal onto -plane with the property .

Using (13) in (12), we obtainThe system of (14) will have nontrivial solution, if the determinant of the coefficients vanishes which on expansion yieldwhereSolving (15), we obtain eight roots of , in which four roots of , that is, , and , correspond to positive -direction and other four roots of , that is, , and , correspond to negative -direction. Now and after, we will restrict our work to positive -direction. Corresponding to roots , and there exist four waves in descending order of their velocities, that is, two coupled longitudinal waves and two coupled transverse waves.

The expressions for phase velocity, attenuation coefficient, specific loss, and penetration depth of above waves are derived as follows.

(i) Phase Velocity. The phase velocities are given bywhere are the phase velocities of two coupled longitudinal waves and two coupled transverse waves, respectively.

(ii) Attenuation Coefficient. The attenuation coefficients are defined aswhere are the attenuation coefficients of two coupled longitudinal waves and two coupled transverse waves, respectively.

(iii) Specific Loss. The specific loss is the ratio of energy () dissipated in taking a specimen through a rate of stress cycle, to the elastic energy () stored in the specimen when the rate of strain is maximum. The specific loss is the most direct method of defining internal friction for a material. For a sinusoidal plane wave of small amplitude, Kolsky [33] shows that the specific loss equals 4π times the absolute value of the imaginary part of to the real part of ; that is,where are the specific loss of two coupled longitudinal waves and two coupled transverse waves, respectively.

(iv) Penetration Depth. The penetration depths are defined bywhere are the penetration depths of two coupled longitudinal waves and two coupled transverse waves, respectively.

4. Steady Oscillations

Let us assume the solution of the formwhere is the frequency of oscillation.

Making use of (21) into (5), (6), and (8), the system of equations of steady oscillations is obtained aswhere .

The matrix differential operator is taken aswhereThe above system of (22) can be represented in the following form:where is a seven component vector function on .

Let us assume that is an elliptic differential operator Hörmander [30], if condition (26) is fulfilled.

Definition 1. The fundamental solution of the system of (21)-(22) (the fundamental matrix of operator ) is the matrix , satisfying condition [30]Here is the Dirac delta, is the unit matrix, and .

Now further in terms of elementary functions is constructed.

5. Fundamental Solution of System of Equation of Steady Oscillations

We consider the following system of equations:where are three-component vector function on and is scalar function on .

The system of (28)–(30) can be written aswhere is the transpose of matrix , , and .

The following equations are obtained by applying the operator to (28) and (29):where .

Equations (32a) and (32c) can be written aswhereIt can be seen thatand are the roots of the equation (with respect to ).

From (32b), it is seen thatwhere .

Applying the operators and to (28) and (30), respectively, we obtain

NowUsing (41) and (42) in (40), we obtainApplying the operator to (43) and using (33)-(34), we obtainThe above equation can be rewritten aswhereIt can be seen thatwhere are the roots of the equation (with respect to ).

Applying the operators and to (29) and (30), respectively, we obtainNowUsing (47) and (51) in (50), we obtainThe above equation may also be written asApplying operator to (53) and using (39), we obtainThe above equation can also be written aswhereFrom (34), (45), and (55), we obtainwhereEquations (37), (47), and (56) can be rewritten in the formwhere is the unit matrix.