Unsteady Couette flows in a second grade fluid with variable material properties

Fluid solid mixtures are generally considered as second grade fluids and are modeled as fluids with variable physical parameters. Thus, an analysis is performed for a second grade fluid with space dependent viscosity, elasticity and density. Two types of time-dependent flows are investigated. An eigen function expansion method is used to find the velocity distribution. The obtained solutions satisfy the boundary and initial conditions and the governing equation. Remarkably some exact analytic solutions are possible for flows involving second grade fluid with variable material properties in terms of trigonometric and Chebyshev functions. (C) 2007 Published by Elsevier B.V.