Flow of an oldroyd fluid in a circular pipe with time dependent pressure gradient

The problem of pulsating flow superimposed on the steady laminar flow in a circular tube is investigated for the fluid characterized by the Oldroyd's constitutive equations. The governing equations are solved in an exact manner and the solution is obtained in terms of two non-dimensional fluid parameters. Several interesting illustrations are provided comparing the behaviour of Newtonian fluid and Oldroyd fluids regarding the velocity field, sectional mean velocity, surface friction and balance of force. The flow for small and large frequencies of vibration are obtained as special cases. For Oldroyd fluids also the flow is basically parabolic for small frequencies while it possesses a boundary layer character at large frequencies. The solution for second order fluids and Maxwell fluids can be obtained by appropriately choosing the two fluid parameters.