On boundary layer flow of a Sisko fluid over a stretching sheet

Abstract

In this paper, the steady boundary layer flow of a non-Newtonian fluid over a nonlinear stretching sheet is investigated. The Sisko fluid model, which is combination of power-law and Newtonian fluids in which the fluid may exhibit shear thinning/thickening behaviors, is considered. The boundary layer equations are derived for the two-dimensional flow of an incompressible Sisko fluid. Similarity transformations are used to reduce the governing nonlinear equations and then solved analytically using the homotopy analysis method. In addition, closed form exact analytical solutions are provided for n = 0 and n = 1. Effects of the pertinent parameters on the boundary layer flow are shown and solutions are contrasted with the power-law fluid solutions.     

Falkner-Skan boundary layer flow of a power-law fluid past a stretching wedge

The steady two-dimensional laminar boundary layer flow of a power-law fluid past a permeable stretching wedge beneath a variable free stream is studied in this paper. Using appropriate similarity variables, the governing equations are reduced to a single third order highly nonlinear ordinary differential equation in the dimensionless stream function, which is solved numerically using the Runge-Kutta scheme coupled with a conventional shooting procedure. The flow is governed by the wedge velocity parameter λ, the transpiration parameter f₀, the fluid power-law index n, and the computed wall shear stress is f″(0). It is found that dual solutions exist for each value of f₀, m and n considered in λ − f″(0) parameter space. A stability analysis for this self-similar flow reveals that for each value of f₀, m and n, lower solution branches are unstable while upper solution branches are stable. Very good agreements are found between the results of the present paper and that of Weidman et al. [28] for n = 1 (Newtonian fluid) and m = 0 (Blasius problem [31]).     

Nano boundary layers over stretching surfaces

In this paper, we present similarity solutions for the nano boundary layer flows with Navier boundary condition. We consider viscous flows over a two-dimensional stretching surface and an axisymmetric stretching surface. The resulting nonlinear ordinary differential equations are solved analytically by the Homotopy Analysis Method. Numerical solutions are obtained by using a boundary value problem solver, and are shown to agree well with the analytical solutions. The effects of the slip parameter K and the suction parameter s on the fluid velocity and on the tangential stress are investigated and discussed. As expected, we find that for such fluid flows at nano scales, the shear stress at the wall decreases (in an absolute sense) with an increase in the slip parameter K.     

MHD power-law fluid flow and heat transfer over a non-isothermal stretching sheet

This article presents a numerical solution for the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) non-Newtonian power-law fluid flow over a semi-infinite non-isothermal stretching sheet with internal heat generation/absorption. The flow is caused by linear stretching of a sheet from an impermeable wall. Thermal conductivity is assumed to vary linearly with temperature. The governing partial differential equations of momentum and energy are converted into ordinary differential equations by using a classical similarity transformation along with appropriate boundary conditions. The intricate coupled non-linear boundary value problem has been solved by Keller box method. It is important to note that the momentum and thermal boundary layer thickness decrease with increase in the power-law index in presence/absence of variable thermal conductivity.     

Instability of power-law fluid flows down an incline subjected to wind stress

In this paper we investigate the effect of a prescribed superficial shear stress on the generation and structure of roll waves developing from infinitesimal disturbances on the surface of a power-law fluid layer flowing down an incline. The unsteady equations of motion are depth integrated according to the von Kármán momentum integral method to obtain a non-homogeneous system of nonlinear hyperbolic conservation laws governing the average flow rate and the thickness of the fluid layer. By conducting a linear stability analysis we obtain an analytical formula for the critical conditions for the onset of instability of a uniform and steady flow in terms of the prescribed surface shear stress. A nonlinear analysis is performed by numerically calculating the nonlinear evolution of a perturbed flow. The calculation is carried out using a high-resolution finite volume scheme. The source term is handled by implementing the quasi-steady wave propagation algorithm. Conclusions are drawn regarding the effect of the applied surface shear stress parameter and flow conditions on the development and characteristics of the roll waves arising from the instability. For a Newtonian flow subjected to a prescribed superficial shear stress, using an analytical theory, we show that the nonlinear governing equations do not admit roll waves solutions under conditions when the uniform and steady flow is linearly stable. For the case of a general power-law fluid flow with zero shear stress applied at the surface, the analytical investigation leads to a procedure for calculating the characteristics of a roll waves flow. These results are compared with those yielded by the numerical procedure.     

Concave solutions of a general self-similar boundary layer problem for power-law fluids

In this paper, we give a rigorous mathematical analysis for a third order nonlinear boundary value problem. The boundary value problem can be applied to steady free convection around a vertical impermeable flat plate in a fluid-saturated porous medium, or steady flow of a power-law fluid induced by impermeable stretching walls in the frame of boundary layer approximation. We establish the uniqueness, existence and nonexistence of (normal) concave solutions or generalized concave solutions to the problem, and obtain some results about boundedness and asymptotic behavior of the (normal) concave solution or the generalized concave solution.     

Falkner-Skan equation for flow past a stretching surface with suction or blowing: Analytical solutions

The simultaneous effects of suction and injection on tangential movement of a nonlinear power-law stretching surface governed by laminar boundary layer flow of a viscous and incompressible fluid beneath a non-uniform free with stream pressure gradient is considered. The self-similar flow is governed by Falkner-Skan equation, with transpiration parameter γ, wall slip velocity λ and stretching sheet (or pressure gradient) parameter β. The exact solution for β = −1 and three closed form asymptotic solutions for β large, large suction γ, and λ → 1 have also been presented. Dual solutions are found for β = −1 for each value of the transpiration parameter, including the non-permeable surface, for each prescribed value of the wall slip velocity λ. The large β asymptotic solution also dual with respect to wall slip velocity λ, but do not depend on suction and blowing. The critical values of γ, β and λ are obtained and their significance on the skin friction and velocity profiles is discussed. An approximate solution by integral method for a trial velocity profile is presented and results are compared with the exact solutions.     

Analysis of fluid flow and heat transfer over an unsteady stretching surface

This article considers two situations involving unsteady laminar boundary layer flow due to a stretching surface in a quiescent viscous incompressible fluid. In one configuration, the surface is impermeable with prescribed heat flux, in the other, the surface is permeable with prescribed temperature. The boundary value problems governing a similarity reduction for each of these situations are investigated and the existence of a solution is proved for all relevant values of physical parameters. The uniqueness of the solution is also proved for some (but not all) values of the parameters. Finally, a priori bounds are obtained for the skin friction coefficient and local Nusselt number.     

On the similarity solutions of magnetohydrodynamic flows of power-law fluids over a stretching sheet

A rigorous mathematical analysis is given for a magnetohydrodynamics boundary layer problem, which arises in the two-dimensional steady laminar boundary layer flow for an incompressible electrically conducting power-law fluid along a stretching flat sheet in the presence of an exterior magnetic field orthogonal to the flow. In the self-similar case, the problem is transformed into a third-order nonlinear ordinary differential equation with certain boundary conditions, which is proved to be equivalent to a singular initial value problem for an integro-differential equation of first order. With the aid of the singular initial value problem, the uniqueness and existence results for (generalized) normal solutions are established and some properties of these solutions are explored.     

Falkner-Skan equation for flow past a moving wedge with suction or injection

The characteristics of steady two-dimensional laminar boundary layer flow of a viscous and incompressible fluid past a moving wedge with suction or injection are theoretically investigated. The transformed boundary layer equations are solved numerically using an implicit finite-difference scheme known as the Keller-box method. The effects of Falkner-Skan power-law parameter (m), suction/injection parameter (f0) and the ratio of free stream velocity to boundary velocity parameter (λ) are discussed in detail. The numerical results for velocity distribution and skin friction coefficient are given for several values of these parameters. Comparisons with the existing results obtained by other researchers under certain conditions are made. The critical values off ₀,m and λ are obtained numerically and their significance on the skin friction and velocity profiles is discussed. The numerical evidence would seem to indicate the onset of reverse flow as it has been found by Riley and Weidman in 1989 for the Falkner-Skan equation for flow past an impermeable stretching boundary.     

Analytical solution of magnetohydrodynamic stagnation-point flow of a power-law fluid towards a stretching surface

A new kind of analytic technique, namely the homotopy analysis method (HAM), is employed to give an explicit analytical solution of the steady two-dimensional stagnation-point flow of an electrically conducting power-law fluid over a stretching surface when the surface is stretched in its own plane with a velocity proportional to the distance from the stagnation-point. A uniform transverse magnetic field is applied normal to the surface. An explicit analytical solution is given by recursive formulae for the first-order power-law (Newtonian) fluid when the ratio of free stream velocity and stretching velocity is not equal to unity. For second and real order power-law fluids, an analytical approach is proposed for magnetic field parameter in a quite large range. All of our analytical results agree well with numerical results. The results obtained by HAM suggest that the solution of the problem under consideration converges.     

Heat transfer in a liquid film over an unsteady stretching surface with viscous dissipation in presence of external magnetic field

This paper presents a mathematical analysis of MHD flow and heat transfer to a laminar liquid film from a horizontal stretching surface. The flow of a thin fluid film and subsequent heat transfer from the stretching surface is investigated with the aid of similarity transformation. The transformation enables to reduce the unsteady boundary layer equations to a system of non-linear ordinary differential equations. Numerical solution of resulting non-linear differential equations is found by using efficient shooting technique. Boundary layer thickness is explored numerically for some typical values of the unsteadiness parameter S and Prandtl number Pr, Eckert number Ec and Magnetic parameter Mn. Present analysis shows that the combined effect of magnetic field and viscous dissipation is to enhance the thermal boundary layer thickness.     

Similarity solutions for mixed convection boundary layer flow over a permeable horizontal flat plate

The effects of suction and injection on steady laminar mixed convection boundary layer flow over a permeable horizontal flat plate in a viscous and incompressible fluid is investigated in this paper. The similarity solutions of the governing boundary layer equations are obtained for some values of the suction and injection parameter f₀, the constant exponent n of the wall temperature as well as the mixed convection parameter λ. The resulting system of nonlinear ordinary differential equations is solved numerically for both assisting and opposing flow regimes using a finite-difference scheme known as the Keller-box method. Numerical results for the reduced skin friction coefficient, the reduced local Nusselt number, and the velocity and temperature profiles are obtained for various values of the parameters considered. Dual solutions are found to exist for the opposing flow.     

Nano boundary layer equation with nonlinear Navier boundary condition

At the micro and nano scale the standard no slip boundary condition of classical fluid mechanics does not apply and must be replaced by a boundary condition that allows some degree of tangential slip. In this study the classical laminar boundary layer equations are studied using Lie symmetries with the no-slip boundary condition replaced by a nonlinear Navier boundary condition. This boundary condition contains an arbitrary index parameter, denoted by n>0, which appears in the coefficients of the ordinary differential equation to be solved. The case of a boundary layer formed in a convergent channel with a sink, which corresponds to n=1/2, is solved analytically. Another analytical but non-unique solution is found corresponding to the value n=1/3, while other values of n for n>1/2 correspond to the boundary layer formed in the flow past a wedge and are solved numerically. It is found that for fixed slip length the velocity components are reduced in magnitude as n increases, while for fixed n the velocity components are increased in magnitude as the slip length is increased.     

Group invariant solution for a pre-existing fracture driven by a power-law fluid in impermeable rock

The effect of power-law rheology on hydraulic fracturing is investigated. The evolution of a two-dimensional fracture with non-zero initial length and driven by a power-law fluid is analyzed. Only fluid injection into the fracture is considered. The surrounding rock mass is impermeable. With the aid of lubrication theory and the PKN approximation a partial differential equation for the fracture half-width is derived. Using a linear combination of the Lie-point symmetry generators of the partial differential equation, the group invariant solution is obtained and the problem is reduced to a boundary value problem for an ordinary differential equation. Exact analytical solutions are derived for hydraulic fractures with constant volume and with constant propagation speed. The asymptotic solution near the fracture tip is found. The numerical solution for general working conditions is obtained by transforming the boundary value problem to a pair of initial value problems. Throughout the paper, hydraulic fracturing with shear thinning, Newtonian and shear thickening fluids are compared.     

双曲拉伸面上的流动及其热交换

研究不可压缩粘性流体,在双曲拉伸面上的边界层流动及其热传导．分别使用级数展开法和局部非相似（LNS）法,得到解析结果和数值结果,给出了表面摩擦和Nusselt数的解析结果和数值结果,并进行了互相比较．同时发现动量和热边界层厚度,随着离前缘距离的增加而减小．众所周知,线性拉伸项方程的解,可以作为双曲拉伸首次项方程的解．     

A boundary layer problem arising in gravity-driven laminar film flow of power-law fluids along vertical walls

A rigorous mathematical analysis is given for a boundary layer problem for a third-order nonlinear ordinary differential equation, which arises in gravity-driven laminar film flow of power-law fluids along vertical walls. Firstly, the problem is transformed into a singular nonlinear two-point boundary value problem of second order. Next, the latter is proved to have a unique positive solution, for which some estimates are established. Finally, the result above-mentioned is turned over to the original problem. The conclusion of this paper is that the boundary layer problem has a unique normal solution if the power-law index is less than or equal to one and a generalized normal solution if the power-law index is greater than one. Also the asymptotic behavior of the normal solution at the infinity is displayed.The work was supported by NNSF of China.     

An interior layer in the thermal power-law blown film model

Film blowing is a highly complex industrial process used to manufacture thin sheets of polymer. Models that describe this process are highly nonlinear and numerical instabilities often occur when solving the highly nonlinear differential equations. This paper investigates the structure of typical solutions that arise when the polymer is assumed to be described by a power-law fluid operating under nonisothermal conditions. We consider both a shear-thinning and shear-thickening polymer and use a balance of orders argument to identify the structure of a region of rapid expansion in the radial profile of the film. A mixture of heuristic and singular perturbation techniques is applied to obtain a closed form approximate expression for the radial profile of the film which displays the interior layer phenomenon. We demonstrate how approximate solutions to the highly nonlinear two-point boundary value problem describing this process may be constructed using this expression as an initial estimate in an iterative scheme. Numerical solutions for the radial temperature, velocity and thickness profiles of the film are subsequently obtained by iteration.     

Unsteady flow and heat transfer in a thin film of Ostwald–de Waele liquid over a stretching surface

In this paper, the effects of viscous dissipation and the temperature-dependent thermal conductivity on an unsteady flow and heat transfer in a thin liquid film of a non-Newtonian Ostwald–de Waele fluid over a horizontal porous stretching surface is studied. Using a similarity transformation, the time-dependent boundary-layer equations are reduced to a set of non-linear ordinary differential equations. The resulting five parameter problem is solved by the Keller–Box method. The effects of the unsteady parameter on the film thickness are explored numerically for different values of the power-law index parameter and the injection parameter. Numerical results for the velocity, the temperature, the skin friction and the wall-temperature gradient are presented through graphs and tables for different values of the pertinent parameter. One of the important findings of the study is that the film thickness increases with an increase in the power-law index parameter (as well as the injection parameter). Quite the opposite is true with the unsteady parameter. Furthermore, the wall-temperature gradient decreases with an increase in the Eckert number or the variable thermal conductivity parameter. Furthermore, the surface temperature of a shear thinning fluid is larger compared to the Newtonian and shear thickening fluids. The results obtained reveal many interesting behaviors that warrant further study of the equations related to non-Newtonian fluid phenomena, especially the shear-thinning phenomena.     

DTM-BF方法和可渗透收缩壁面上带滑移速度的非稳态磁流体力学流动

研究了运动的粘性导电流体中可渗透收缩壁面上非稳态磁流体边界层流动,利用解析和数值方法对问题进行了研究,并考虑了壁面速度滑移的影响．提出了一个新的解析方法（DTM-BF）,并将其应用于求解带有无穷远边界条件的非线性控制方程的近似解析解．对所有的解析结果和数值结果进行了对比,结果显示两者非常吻合,从而证明了DTM-BF方法的有效性．另外,对不同的参数,得到了控制方程双解和单解的存在范围．最后,分别讨论了滑移参数、非稳态参数、磁场参数、抽吸/喷注参数和速度比例参数对壁面摩擦、唯一解速度分布和双解速度分布的影响．