Non‐Newtonian boundary layer flow induced by a permeable surface stretched with prescribed skin velocity

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the steady flow of a non‐Newtonian power‐law type fluid over a permeable stretching surface. The surface is stretched with a prescribed skin velocity following a power‐law variation along its length.Design/methodology/approachUsing appropriate similarity variables and boundary layer approximations, the continuity and momentum equations are reduced to an ordinary differential equation subject to appropriate transformed boundary conditions, with three dimensionless parameters: the power‐law index of the non‐Newtonian fluid, suction/injection parameter and the power law index of the skin velocity. These equations are solved numerically by using the fourth‐order Runge‐Kutta integration algorithm coupled with a conventional shooting procedure. Comparisons with closed form analytical solutions obtained for the case of Newtonian fluid by previous authors are also performed.FindingsIt was found that the dimensionless entrainment velocity decreases with the power exponent m, of the prescribed skin velocity, irrespective of the non‐Newtonian fluid nature, for both impermeable and permeable surfaces. Large rates of injection lead to very large values of the skin friction, the effect being more intense for small values of the dimensionless flow index n. At the same rate of the injection/suction, the skin friction S is increased when the surface is stretched linearly than uniformly.Practical implicationsThis type of problem has potential to serve as a prototype for many manufacturing processes such as rolling sheet drawn from a die, cooling and/or drying of paper and textile, manufacturing of polymeric sheets, sheet glass and crystalline materials, etc.Originality/valueA thorough analysis of the hydrodynamics of a stretching surface is performed in the present paper, by combining analytical and numerical means. The topics covered here (Ostwald‐de Waele power‐law fluid + prescribed skin velocity + permeability of the stretching surface) seem to be not reported till now in the literature.