Plane surface suddenly set in motion in a viscoelastic fluid with fractional Maxwell model

The fractional calculus approach in the constitutive relationship model of viscoelastic fluid is introduced. The flow near a wall suddenly set in motion is studied for a non-Newtonian viscoelastic fluid with the fractional Maxwell model. Exact solutions of velocity and stress are obtained by using the discrete inverse Laplace transform of the sequential fractional derivatives. It is found that the effect of the fractional orders in the constitutive relationship on the flow field is significant. The results show that for small times there are appreciable viscoelastic effects on the shear stress at the plate, for large times the viscoelastic effects become weak. The project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (10002003), Foundation for University Key Teacher by the Ministry of Education, Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education