Abstract
An explicit approximate solution is obtained for the extended Blasius equation subject to its well-known classical boundary conditions, where the viscosity coefficient is assumed to be positive and temperature-dependent, which arises in several important boundary layer problems in fluid dynamics. This problem extends a previous problem by Cortell (Appl Math Comput 170:706-710, 2005) when the viscosity is constant, in which a numerical solution was obtained. A comparison with other numerical solutions demonstrates that our approximate solution shows an enhancement over some of the existing numerical techniques. Moreover, highly accurate estimates for the skin-friction were calculated and found to be in good agreement with the numerical values obtained by Howarth (Proc R Soc A: Math Phys Eng Sci 164(919):547-579, 1938), Topfer (Z Math Phys 60:397-398, 1912), and Cortell [34] when the viscosity is equal to 1, and when it is equal to 2.