Hydrodynamics of Non-Newtonian Spriggs Fluid Flow Past an Impulsively Moving Plate

One of the fundamental problems in unsteady viscous flows is that of impulsively started motion of a body in an infinite fluid medium which is referred as Stokes’s first problem. On the basis of the fundamental understanding, we have developed a mechanistic modelling and thereby to improve existing technical applications. In this study, one of the particular non-Newtonian Spriggs fluid has considered that it is a truncated power law type of fluid. Flow of non-Newtonian Spriggs fluid caused by the unsteady impulsively moving plate is investigated using a similarity transformation. The use of similarity transformation reduces the unsteady boundary layer equations to linear and nonlinear ordinary differential equations governed by a non-dimensional material parameter. The effect of material parameter on velocity boundary layer is explained by an efficient and robust Homotopy Analysis Method. Variations of the velocity profile are presented graphically for distinct values of material constant. A physical interpretation is also provided. The flow past a plate has received much attention because of its major significance role in numerous disciplines which include the chemical engineering, manufacturing industry, heat conduction problems and geophysical flows (such as in earthquakes and fracture of ice sheets).