Exponential function method for solving nonlinear ordinary differential equations with constant coefficients on a semi-infinite domain

A new approach, named the exponential function method (EFM) is used to obtain solutions to nonlinear ordinary differential equations with constant coefficients in a semi-infinite domain. The form of the solutions of these problems is considered to be an expansion of exponential functions with unknown coefficients. The derivative and product operational matrices arising from substituting in the proposed functions convert the solutions of these problems into an iterative method for finding the unknown coefficients. The method is applied to two problems: viscous flow due to a stretching sheet with surface slip and suction; and mageto hydrodynamic (MHD) flow of an incompressible viscous fluid over a stretching sheet. The two resulting solutions are compared against some standard methods which demonstrates the validity and applicability of the new approach.