Asymptotically consistent analytical solutions for the non-Newtonian Sakiadis boundary layer

Abstract

The Sakiadis boundary layer induced by a moving wall in a semi-infinite fluid domain is a fundamental laminar flow field relevant to high speed coating processes. This work provides an analytical solution to the boundary-layer problem for Ostwald–de Waele power law fluids via a power series expansion and extends the approach taken for Newtonian fluids [Naghshineh et al. “On the use of asymptotically motivated gauge functions to obtain convergent series solutions to nonlinear ODEs,” IMA J. of Appl. Math. 88, 43 (2023)] in which variable substitutions (which naturally determine the gauge function in the power series) are chosen to be consistent with the large distance behavior away from the wall. Contrary to prior literature, the asymptotic behavior dictates that a solution only exists in the range of power law exponents, α, lying in the range of 0.5<α≤1. An analytical solution is obtained in the range of approximately 0.74≤α<1, using a convergent power series with an asymptotically motivated gauge function. For power laws corresponding to 0.5<α<0.74, the gauge function becomes ill-defined over the full domain, and an approximate analytical solution is obtained using the method of asymptotic approximants [Barlow et al. “On the summation of divergent, truncated, and underspecified power series via asymptotic approximants,” Q. J. Mech. Appl. Math. 70, 21–48 (2017)]. The approximant requires knowledge of two physical constants, which we compute a priori using a numerical shooting method on a finite domain. The utility of the power series solution is that it can be solved on the entire semi-infinite domain and—in contrast to a numerical solution—does not require a finite domain length approximation and subsequent domain length refinement.