On axisymmetric flow of Sisko fluid over a radially stretching sheet

This study presents an analysis of the axisymmetric flow of a non-Newtonian fluid over a radially stretching sheet. The momentum equations for two-dimensional flow are first modeled for Sisko fluid constitutive model, which is a combination of power-law and Newtonian fluids. The general momentum equations are then simplified by invoking the boundary layer analysis. Then a non-linear ordinary differential equation governing the axisymmetric boundary layer flow of Sisko fluid over a radially stretching sheet is obtained by introducing new suitable similarity transformations. The resulting non-linear ordinary differential equation is solved analytically via the homotopy analysis method (HAM). Closed form exact solution is then also obtained for the cases n=0 and 1. Analytical results are presented for the velocity profiles for some values of governing parameters such as power-law index, material parameter and stretching parameter. In addition, the local skin friction coefficient for several sets of the values of physical parameter is tabulated and analyzed. It is shown that the results presented in this study for the axisymmetric flow over a radially non-linear stretching sheet of Sisko fluid are quite general so that the corresponding results for the Newtonian fluid and the power-law fluid can be obtained as two limiting cases.     

Steady flow and heat transfer of a magnetohydrodynamic Sisko fluid through porous medium in annular pipe

In this paper, the steady flow and heat transfer of a magnetohydrodynamic fluid is studied. The fluid is assumed to be electrically conducting in the presence of a uniform magnetic field and occupies the porous space in annular pipe. The governing nonlinear equations are modeled by introducing the modified Darcy's law obeying the Sisko model. The system is solved using the homotopy analysis method (HAM), which yields analytical solutions in the form of a rapidly convergent infinite series. Also, HAM is used to obtain analytical solutions of the problem for noninteger values of the power index. The resulting problem for velocity field is then numerically solved using an iterative method to show the accuracy of the analytic solutions. The obtained solutions for the velocity and temperature fields are graphically sketched and the salient features of these solutions are discussed for various values of the power index parameter. We also present a comparison between Sisko and Newtonian fluids. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Analytic solution for flow of Sisko fluid through a porous medium

This paper presents the analytic solution for flow of a magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) Sisko fluid through a porous medium. The non-linear flow problem in a porous medium is formulated by introducing the modified Darcy’s law for Sisko fluid to discuss the flow in a porous medium. The analytic solutions are obtained using homotopy analysis method (HAM). The obtained analytic solutions are explicitly expressed by the recurrence relations and can give results for all the appropriate values of material parameters of the examined fluid. Moreover, the well-known solutions for a Newtonian fluid in non-porous and porous medium are the limiting cases of our solutions.     

Dual solutions of Casson fluid flows over a power-law stretching sheet

A steady boundary layer flow of a non-Newtonian Casson fluid over a power-law stretching sheet is investigated. A self-similar form of the governing equation is obtained, and numerical solutions are found for various values of the governing parameters. The solutions depend on the fluid material parameter. Dual solutions are obtained for some particular range of these parameters. The fluid velocity is found to decrease as the power-law stretching parameter β in the rheological Casson equation increases. At large values of β, the skin friction coefficient and the velocity profile across the boundary layer for the Casson fluid tend to those for the Newtonian fluid.     

On study of horizontal thin film flow of Sisko fluid due to surface tension gradient

The present paper is concerned with the steady thin film flow of the Sisko fluid on a horizontal moving plate, where the surface tension gradient is a driving mechanism. The analytic solution for the resulting nonlinear ordinary differential equation is obtained by the Adomian decomposition method (ADM). The physical quantities are derived including the pressure profile, the velocity profile, the maximum residue time, the stationary points, the volume flow rate, the average film velocity, the uniform film thickness, the shear stress, the surface tension profile, and the vorticity vector. It is found that the velocity of the Sisko fluid film decreases when the fluid behavior index and the Sisko fluid parameter increase, whereas it increases with an increase in the inverse capillary number. An increase in the inverse capillary number results in an increase in the surface tension which in turn results in an increase in the surface tension gradient on the Sisko fluid film. The locations of the stationary points are shifted towards the moving plate with the increase in the inverse capillary number, and vice versa locations for the stationary points are found with the increasing Sisko fluid parameter. Furthermore, shear thinning and shear thickening characteristics of the Sisko fluid are discussed. A comparison is made between the Sisko fluid film and the Newtonian fluid film.     

Magnetohydrodynamic flow of a Sisko fluid in annular pipe: A numerical study

This paper presents a numerical study for the unsteady flow of a magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) Sisko fluid in annular pipe. The fluid is assumed to be electrically conducting in the presence of a uniform magnetic field. Based on the constitutive relationship of a Sisko fluid, the non‐linear equation governing the flow is first modelled and then numerically solved. The effects of the various parameters especially the power index n, the material parameter of the non‐Newtonian fluid b and the magnetic parameter B on the flow characteristics are explored numerically and presented through several graphs. Moreover, the shear‐thinning and shear‐thickening characteristics of the non‐Newtonian Sisko fluid are investigated and a comparison is also made with the Newtonian fluid. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Comparison between the HAM and HPM solutions of thin film flows of non-Newtonian fluids on a moving belt

In this paper, we prove in general that the homotopy perturbation method (HPM) proposed in 1998 is only a special case of the homotopy analysis method (HAM) profound in 1992 when ħ = −1. Besides, by using the thin film flows of Sisko and Oldroyd 6-constant fluids on a moving belt as examples, we show that the solutions given by HPM (Siddiqui, A.M., Ahmed, M., Ghori, Q.K.: Chaos Solitons and Fractals (2006) in press) are divergent, and thus useless. However, by choosing a proper value of the auxiliary parameter ħ, we give convergent series solution by means of the HAM. These two examples also show that, different from the HPM and other traditional analytic techniques, the HAM indeed provides us with a simple way to ensure the convergence of the solution.     

Transient laminar forced convection to power-law fluids inside ducts resulting from a sudden change in wall temperature

The transient laminar forced convection to power-law fluids in thermally developing, hydrodynamically developed flow inside parallel-plate ducts and circular tubes resulting from a sudden change in wall temperature is studied. The generalized integral transform and the Laplace transform techniques are employed to develop approximate analytic solutions. The local Nusselt number and average fluid temperature are presented over the range of the dimensionless axial coordinate Z varying from 10^?4 to 10^?1 for several dimensionless times. Three different values of the power-law index are considered in the study includedn=1/3,n=1 andn=3 corresponding to, respectively, the pseudoplastic, Newtonian and dilatant fluids.     

The Falkner–Skan Wedge Flows of Power-Law Fluids Embedded in a Porous Medium

The non-Darcy flow characteristics of power-law non-Newtonian fluids past a wedge embedded in a porous medium have been studied. The governing equations are converted to a system of first-order ordinary differential equations by means of a local similarity transformation and have been solved numerically, for a number of parameter combinations of wedge angle parameter m, power-law index of the non-Newtonian fluids n, first-order resistance A and second-order resistance B, using a fourth-order Runge–Kutta integration scheme with the Newton–Raphson shooting method. Velocity and shear stress at the body surface are presented for a range of the above parameters. These results are also compared with the corresponding flow problems for a Newtonian fluid. Numerical results show that for the case of the constant wedge angle and material parameter A, the local skin friction coefficient is lower for a dilatant fluid as compared with the pseudo-plastic or Newtonian fluids.     

The Stokes boundary layer for a power-law fluid

We develop semi-analytical, self-similar solutions for the oscillatory boundary layer (‘Stokes layer’) in a semi-infinite power-law fluid bounded by an oscillating wall (the so-called Stokes problem). These solutions differ significantly from the classical solution for a Newtonian fluid, both in the non-sinusoidal form of the velocity oscillations and in the manner at which their amplitude decays with distance from the wall. In particular, for shear-thickening fluids the velocity reaches zero at a finite distance from the wall, and for shear-thinning fluids it decays algebraically with distance, in contrast to the exponential decay for a Newtonian fluid. We demonstrate numerically that these semi-analytical, self-similar solutions provide a good approximation to the flow driven by a sinusoidally oscillating wall.     

Non-Newtonian flow in microporous structures under the electroviscous effect

Single phase non-Newtonian microporous flow combined with the electroviscous effect is investigated in the pore-scale under conditions of various rheological properties and electrokinetic parameters. The lattice Boltzmann method is employed to solve both the electric potential field and flow velocity field. The simulation of commonly used power-law non-Newtonian flow shows that the electroviscous effect on the flow depends on both the fluid rheological behavior and pore surface area ratio significantly. For the shear thinning fluid with power-law exponent n < 1, the fluid viscosity near the wall is smaller and the electrovicous effect plays a more important role compared to the Newtonian fluid and shear thickening fluid. The high pore surface area ratio in the porous structure increases the electroviscous force and the induced flow resistance becomes important even to the flow of Newtonian and shear thickening fluids.     

Soret and Dufour effect on double diffusion mixed convection from a vertical surface in a porous medium saturated with a non-Newtonian fluid

A non-similar boundary layer analysis is presented to study the flow, heat and mass transfer characteristics of non-Darcian mixed convection of a non-Newtonian fluid from a vertical isothermal plate embedded in a homogeneous porous medium with the effect of Soret and Dufour and in the presence of either surface injection or suction. The value of the mixed-convection parameter lies between 0 and 1. In addition, the power-law model is used for non-Newtonian fluids with exponent n < 1 for pseudoplastics n = 1 for Newtonian fluids and n > 1 for dilatant fluids. Furthermore, the coordinates and dependent variables are transformed to yield computationally efficient numerical solutions that are valid over the entire range of mixed convection, from the pure forced-convection limit to the pure free-convection limit, and the whole domain of non-Newtonian fluids, from pseudoplastics to dilatant fluids. The numerical solution of the problem is derived using a Runge–Kutta integration scheme with Newton–Raphson shooting technique. Distributions for velocity, temperature and concentration, as well as for the rate of wall heat and mass transfer, have been obtained and discussed for various physical parametric values.     

On thermal boundary layer of a non-Newtonian fluid on a power-law stretched surface of variable temperature with suction or injection

 Heat transfer characteristics of a non-Newtonian fluid on a power-law stretched surface of variable temperature with suction or injection were investigated. Similarity solutions of the laminar boundary layer equations describing heat transfer and fluid flow in a quiescent fluid were obtained and solved numerically. Velocity and temperature profiles as well as the Nusselt number, Nu, were studied for two thermal boundary conditions; uniform surface temperature and variable surface temperature, for different parameters; Prandtl number Pr, temperature exponent b, velocity exponent m, injection parameter d and power-law index n. It was found that decreasing injection parameter d, and power-law index n and increasing Prandtl number Pr and surface temperature exponent b enhance the heat transfer coefficient. Received on 27 April 2000     

The end correction for power-law fluids in the capillary rheometer

The finite element scheme developed by Nickell, Tanner and Caswell is used to compute the entry and exit losses for creeping flow of power-law fluids in a capillary rheometer. The predicted entry losses for a Newtonian fluid agree well with available experimental and theoretical results. The entry losses for inelastic power-law fluids increased with decreasing flow behaviour index and show an increasing deviation from available upper bound results as the flow behaviour index in the power-law decreases.The exit losses are found to be finite for inelastic power-law fluids and increase as the flow behaviour index decreases. The predicted die swell for Newtonian fluids agrees well with the available experimental data while the influence of shear thinning is to reduce the die swell.The end correction which is the sum of the entry and exit losses relative to twice the viscometric wall shear stress varies from 0.834 for n = 1 to 2.917 for n = 1/6. This figure reaches a very high value as n tends to zero. The experimental variation in the Couette correction factor in capillary rheometry is explained in terms of the shear thinning characteristics of the fluid. It is concluded that the exit flow is not viscometric, contrary to a common assumption.     

Peristaltic flow of Sisko fluid in a uniform inclined tube

We have analyzed an incompressible Sisko fluid through an axisymmetric uniform tube with a sinusoidal wave propagating down its walls. The present analysis of non- Newtonian fluid is investigated under the considerations of long wavelength and low Reynolds number approximation. The analytic solution is obtained using （i） the regular perturbation method （ii） the Homotopy analysis method （HAM）. The comparison of both the solutions is presented graphically. The results for the pressure rise, frictional force and pressure gradient have been calculated numerically and the results are studied for various values of the physical parameters of interest, such as α （angle of inclination）, b^＊ （Sisko fluid parameter）, Ф （amplitude ratio） and n （power law index）. Trapping phenomena is discussed at the end of the article.     

Unsteady magnetohydrodynamic stagnation point flow — closed-form analytical solutions

This paper investigates the unsteady stagnation point flow and heat transfer of magnetohydrodynamic(MHD) fluids over a moving permeable flat surface. The unsteady Navier-Stokes(NS) equations are transformed into a similarity nonlinear ordinary differential equation, and a closed form solution is obtained for the unsteadiness parameter of 2. The boundary layer energy equation is transformed into a similarity equation,and is solved for a constant wall temperature and a time-dependent uniform wall heat flux case. The solution domain, velocity, and temperature profiles are calculated for different combinations of parameters including the Prandtl number, mass transfer parameter, wall moving parameter, and magnetic parameter. Two solution branches are obtained for certain combinations of the controlling parameters, and a stability analysis demonstrates that the lower solution branch is not stable. The present solutions provide an exact solution to the entire unsteady MHD NS equations, which can be used for validating the numerical code of computational fluid dynamics.     

Anomalous predictions of pressure drop and heat transfer in ducts of arbitrary cross-section with modified power law fluids

 The apparent viscosities of purely viscous non-Newtonian fluids are shear rate dependent. At low shear rates, many of such fluids exhibit Newtonian behaviour while at higher shear rates non-Newtonian, power law characteristics exist. Between these two ranges, the fluid's viscous properties are neither Newtonian or power law. Utilizing an apparent viscosity constitutive equation called the “Modified Power Law” which accounts for the above behavior, solutions have been obtained for forced convection flows. A shear rate similarity parameter is identified which specifies both the shear rate range for a given fluid and set of operating conditions and the appropriate solution for that range. The results of numerical solutions for the friction factor–Reynolds number product and for the Nusselt number as a function of a dimensionless shear rate parameter have been presented for forced fully developed laminer duct flows of different cross-sections with modified power law fluids. Experimental data is also presented showing the suitability of the “Modified Power Law” constitutive equation to represent the apparent viscosity of various polymer solutions. Received on 21 August 2000     

Shear flow of a Newtonian fluid over a quiescent generalized Newtonian fluid

The flow of an upper shear-driven Newtonian fluid above an otherwise still non-Newtonian fluid is considered. The lower fluid is modelled as a generalized Newtonian fluid and set into motion by interfacial shear. By means of similarity transformations, the governing partial differential equations for the two-fluid problem transform exactly into two sets of ordinary differential equations coupled only at the interface. The successful transformation of the two-fluid problem is applied to the particular case when the lower fluid obeys power-law rheology. The resulting three-parameter problem is solved numerically for some different parameter combinations by means of a direct integration approach with the density ratio fixed to unity. We observed that the interfacial velocities decreased with increasing values of the power-law index n in the range from 0.6 to 1.4 whereas the shear-induced motion of the lower fluid penetrates far deeper into a shear-thinning (n < 1) than into a shear-thickening (n > 1) fluid. This phenomenon is ascribed to a corresponding increase of the non-linear viscosity function with lower n-values.     

The boundary layers of an unsteady incompressible stagnation-point flow with mass transfer

In the current work, the boundary layers of an unsteady incompressible stagnation-point flow with mass transfer were further investigated. Similarity transformation technique was used and the similarity equation group was solved using numerical methods. Interesting observation is that there are multiple solutions seen for negative unsteadiness parameters, β. The influences of mass transfer, unsteadiness parameter, and Prandtl numbers on velocity and temperature profiles, wall drag, and wall heat fluxes were investigated and analyzed. The asymptotic behaviors for the similarity equations in limiting situations were theoretically analyzed. It is found that solutions exist for all mass transfer parameters for β≥−1. For a certain mass transfer parameter, there are two solutions when β_c<β<0; there is one solution for (β=β_c)∪(β≥0); there is no solution for β<β_c, where β_c is a critical unsteadiness parameter dependent on mass transfer parameter.