Use of Adomian decomposition method in the study of parallel plate flow of a third grade fluid

In this paper, Adomian's decomposition method is used to solve non-linear differential equations which arise in fluid dynamics. We study basic flow problems of a third grade non-Newtonian fluid between two parallel plates separated by a finite distance. The technique of Adomian decomposition is successfully applied to study the problem of a non-Newtonian plane Couette flow, fully developed plane Poiseuille flow and plane Couette-Poiseuille flow. The results obtained show the reliability and efficiency of this analytical method. Numerical solutions are also obtained by solving non-linear ordinary differential equations using Chebyshev spectral method. We present a comparative study between the analytical solutions and numerical solutions. The analytical results are found to be in good agreement with numerical solutions which reveals the effectiveness and convenience of the Adomian decomposition method. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.