Abstract:
This thesis investigates the unsteady flow of Non-Newtonian Fluid - Casson fluid between two
squeezing/separating parallel plates under the presence of viscous dissipation,
magnetohydrodynamic effect and joule dissipation. This investigation also involves the radiation
and chemical reaction effects on Casson fluid. The fundamental governing equations for the NonNewtonian Casson fluid flow problem is highly non-linear and coupled partial differential equation
(PDEs) with time dependency. In order to reduce this highly nonlinear system of PDEs into
Ordinary differential equations (ODEs), similarity transformations are used. The analytical and
numerical solutions of the reduced ODEs are obtained using MAPLE through Homotopy Analysis
Method (HAM) and Finite Difference Method (FDM), respectively. These results are validated
with the previously published results derived by employing Shooting method along with results of
bvp4c. Subsequently, the influence of prominent dimensionless flow parameters on velocity, heat
transfer and mass flow are presented graphically with their physical aspects on engineering
applications. The velocity field, heat transfer and mass flow contours are also plotted for each case
in order to understand the effect of these flow parameters on flow, heat and mass distribution in
the given Casson fluid flow.
A comprehensive analysis of the analytic procedure HAM and the approximate solution
scheme FDM is carried out to compare the results provided by both for the considered flow model.
This comparison encompasses performance of both the procedures on the basis of processing time,
memory allocation (computational cost) and accuracy, through which effectiveness of these
procedures is determined.