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.     

MHD mixed convection for viscoelastic fluid past a porous wedge

A magnetic hydrodynamic (MHD) mixed convective heat transfer problem of a second-grade viscoelastic fluid past a wedge with porous suction or injection has been studied. Governing equations include continuity equation, momentum equation and energy equation of the fluid. It has been analyzed by a combination of a series expansion method, the similarity transformation and a second-order accurate finite-difference method. Solutions of wedge flow on the wedge surface have been obtained by a generalized Falkner-Skan flow derivation. Some important parameters have been discussed by this study, which include the Prandtl number (Pr), the elastic number (E), the free convection parameter (G) and the magnetic parameter (M), the porous suction and injection parameter (C) and the wedge shape factor (β). Results indicated that elastic effect (E) in the flow could increase the local heat transfer coefficient and enhance the heat transfer of a wedge. In addition, similar to the results from Newtonian fluid flow and conduction analysis of a wedge, better heat transfer is obtained with a larger G and Pr.     

二维边界层方程的迭代求解

针对二维边界层方程,提出了分析积分迭代法.首先将该方法应用于Blasius方程和Falkner-Skan方程的求解,数值计算结果稳定,计算精度高;然后对外部有势流不能达到自相似要求、必须二维求解的二维层流边界层问题,在分析积分迭代法中加上计算力学的松弛迭代法,形成了一套有效的算法.数值结果表明该方法用于层流边界层的计算是很有效的.     

An application of Ungar's differential transform to elastodynamics

In recent years, a lot of writers have used Cagniard-de Hoop’s method^[1][2] to solve some problems of elastic wave. But it is a difficult and complicated task to change the path of integration when we use this method. A differential transform by A.Ungar^[3,6] can obviate this difficulty. In this paper, weuse Ungar’s differential transform to solve a case of Lamb’s problem^[1][2].     

Approximate solutions to MHD Falkner-Skan flow over permeable wall

The magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) Falkner-Skan boundary layer flow over a permeable wall in the presence of a transverse magnetic field is examined. The approximate solutions and skin friction coefficients of the MHD boundary layer flow are obtained by using a method that couples the differential transform method (DTM) with the Padé approximation called DTM-Padé. The approximate solutions are expressed in the form of a power series that can be easily computed with an iterative procedure. The approximate solutions are tabulated, plotted for the values of different parameters and compared with the numerical ones obtained by employing the shooting technique. It is found that the approximate solution agrees very well with the numerical solution, showing the reliability and validity of the present work. Moreover, the effects of various physical parameters on the boundary layer flow are presented graphically and discussed.     

Analytical solution of magnetohydrodynamic sink flow

An analytical solution to the famous Falkner-Skan equation for the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) flow is obtained for a special case, namely, the sink flow with a velocity power index of -1. The solution is given in a closed form. Multiple solution branches are obtained. The effects of the magnetic parameter and the wall stretching parameter are analyzed. Interesting velocity profiles are observed with reversal flow regions even for a stationary wall. These solutions provide a rare case of the Falkner-Skan MHD ...     

The velocity and shear stress functions of the Falkner-Skan equation arising in boundary layer theory

New compactness results on the velocity functions and shear stress functions of the well-known Falkner-Skan equation are obtained. The methodology is to utilize the equivalence between the Falkner-Skan equation and a singular integral equation established recently by Lan and Yang.     

Analytical solution of magnetohydrodynamic sink flow

An analytical solution to the famous Falkner-Skan equation for the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) flow is obtained for a special case, namely, the sink flow with a velocity power index of −1. The solution is given in a closed form. Multiple solution branches are obtained. The effects of the magnetic parameter and the wall stretching parameter are analyzed. Interesting velocity profiles are observed with reversal flow regions even for a stationary wall. These solutions provide a rare case of the Falkner-Skan MHD flow with an analytical closed form formula. They greatly enrich the analytical solution for the celebrated Falkner-Skan equation and provide better understanding of this equation.     

Analytic continuation of Taylor series and the boundary value problems of some nonlinear ordinary differential equations

We compare and discuss the respective efficiency of three methods (with two variants for each of them), based respectively on Taylor (Maclaurin) series, Padé approximants and conformal mappings, for solving quasi-analytically a two-point boundary value problem of a nonlinear ordinary differential equation (ODE). Six configurations of ODE and boundary conditions are successively considered according to the increasing difficulties that they present. After having indicated that the Taylor series method almost always requires the recourse to analytical continuation procedures to be efficient, we use the complementarity of the two remaining methods (Padé and conformal mapping) to illustrate their respective advantages and limitations. We emphasize the importance of the existence of solutions with movable singularities for the efficiency of the methods, particularly for the so-called Padé-Hankel method. (We show that this latter method is equivalent to pushing a movable pole to infinity.) For each configuration, we determine the singularity distribution (in the complex plane of the independent variable) of the solution sought and show how this distribution controls the efficiency of the two methods. In general the method based on Padé approximants is easy to use and robust but may be awkward in some circumstances whereas the conformal mapping method is a very fine method which should be used when high accuracy is required.     

Numerical solution of the Falkner-Skan equation based on quasilinearization

We present two iterative methods for solving the Falkner-Skan equation based on the quasilinearization method. We formulate the original problem as a new free boundary value problem. The truncated boundary depending on a small parameter is an unknown free boundary and has to be determined as part of solution. Using a change of variables, the free boundary value problem is transformed to a problem defined on [0, 1]. We apply the quasilinearization method to solve the resulting nonlinear problem. Then we propose two different iterative algorithms by means of a cubic spline solver. Numerical results for various instances are compared with those reported previously in the literature. The comparisons show the accuracy, robustness and efficiency of the presented methodology.