On the solution of a blasius equation

Abstract

In the area of physics and engineering there are some simple systems which their equations governing their behavior are easy to formulate but difficult to solve. This is due to the systems which governed by nonlinear equations forming a nonlinear system in most of the situations. It is difficult, but often more difficult to get analytic approximation rather than numerical solution. Boundary layer equation is one of the famous nonlinear equations that have keen interest of many researchers many years ago. In this research, an equation for incompressible viscous flow over a flat plate is studied. The aim of this study is to analyze how the solution of this system can be obtained by analytical approximation but still valid compare with the result obtained by numerical method. The equation was formulated from Prandtl’s boundary layer equation. Through the process of transformation a third order partial differential equation which is known as Blasius equation was derived. The Homotopy Perturbation Method (HMP) is used to obtain the analytical approximation for the Blasius equation. To validate the method, the result obtained is then compared with other analytical solution method and also with numerical solution. The HPM result is implemented on Excel platform to generate the graphs