Boundary-layer flow of Reiner-Philippoff fluids past a stretching wedge

This paper presents a numerical analysis of the steady boundary-layer flow of a Reiner-Philippoff fluid induced by a 90 degrees stretching wedge in a variable free stream. The governing partial differential equations are converted into a set of two ordinary differential equations by the use of a similarity transformation. The flow is therefore governed by a stretching velocity parameter lambda and two non-Newtonian fluid parameters gamma and mu(0). The variation of the skin friction, as well as other flow characteristics, as a function of the governing parameters is presented graphically and tabulated. A stability analysis has also been performed for this self-similar flow based on linear disturbances to the steady similarity solutions. The results presented in this paper reveal that there are no multiple (dual) solutions for the present problem and the unique solution is stable. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.