Comparison between homotopy analysis method and homotopy renormalization method in fluid mechanics

Abstract

In this paper, the homotopy renormalization method (HTR) is compared with the homotopy analysis method (HAM), an analytical approximation technique for highly nonlinear problems. Four problems in fluid mechanics, including the Blasius viscous flow, magnetohydrodynamic flow, free-convective boundary-layer flow, and Von Kármán swirling viscous flow, are used for detailed comparison. It is found that the HAM approximations are much more accurate than the HTR approximations at the same order. Furthermore, higher-order approximations with smaller errors can be obtained relatively simply by the HAM, while the HTR struggles in such scenarios. All of these confirm the superiority of the HAM for highly nonlinear problems in fluid mechanics.