On the generalized Falkner–Skan equation governing boundary layer flow of a FENE-P fluid

✍ Scribed by M. Anabtawi; S. Khuri

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2007
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 164 KB
• Volume: 20
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0893-9659
• DOI: 10.1016/j.aml.2007.01.005

✦ Synopsis

In this work, we consider a viscous boundary layer flow past a flat plate at a non-zero pressure gradient, for a viscoelastic fluid governed by the FENE-P model. Assuming that the Reynolds number Re and the Weissenberg number He satisfy the condition Re We 2 1, we will show that the stream function is modeled by a generalized Falkner-Skan equation. Intuitively, this means that 1/He 2 grows much faster than Re, that is Re = o(1/He 2 ). Further, it is shown that this extended Falkner-Skan equation can be reduced to the classical Falkner-Skan equation via a function transformation. Finally, a decomposition algorithm is implemented for the numerical solution of the governing equation and an estimate of the skin friction coefficient is obtained.