Unsteady separated stagnation-point flow of an incompressible viscous fluid on the surface of a moving porous plate

Abstract

Using group-theoretic method, an analysis is presented for a similarity solution of boundary layer equations which represents an unsteady two-dimensional separated stagnation-point (USSP) flow of an incompressible fluid over a porous plate moving in its own plane with speed u0(t). It is observed that the solution to the governing nonlinear ordinary differential equation for the USSP flow admits of two solutions (in contrast with the corresponding steady flow where the solution is unique): one is the attached flow solution (AFS) and the other is the reverse flow solution (RFS). A novel result of the analysis is that in the case of stationary plate (u0(t) = 0), after a certain value of the magnitude of the blowing d (<0) at the plate, only the AFS exists and the solution becomes unique. For a stationary plate (u0(t) = 0), the USSP flow is found to be separated for all values of d in both the cases of AFS and RFS. It is also observed that when u0(t) = 0, in the RFS flow with wall suction d (>0), there are two stagnation-points in the flow but in the presence of blowing d (<0), there is only one stagnation-point in the flow which moves further and further up with increase in |d|. Suction is shown to increase the wall shear stress while blowing has an opposite effect. Streamlines for an USSP flow when u0(t) ≠ 0 are also plotted. It is found that in this case, the USSP flow is not in general separated.