Abstract
An analysis is carried Out to study the unsteady magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) two-dimensional boundary layer flow of a second grade viscoelastic fluid over an oscillatory stretching Surface. The flow is induced due to an infinite elastic sheet which is stretched back and forth in its own plane. For the investigated problem, the governing equations are reduced to a non-linear partial differential equation by means of similarity transformations. This equation is solved both by a newly developed analytic technique, namely homotopy analysis method (HAM) and by a numerical method employing the Finite difference scheme, in which a coordinate transformation is employed to transform the semi-infinite physical space to a bounded computational domain. The results obtained by means of both methods are then compared and show an excellent agreement. The effects of various parameters like visco-elastic parameter, the Hartman number and the relative frequency amplitude of the oscillatory sheet to the stretching rate on the velocity field are graphically illustrated and analysed. The values of wall shear stress for these parameters are also tabulated and discussed. (c) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.