Abstract
Stokes and Couette flows produced by an oscillatory motion of a wall are analyzed under conditions where the no-slip assumption between the wall and the fluid is no longer valid. The motion of the wall is assumed to have a generic sinusoidal behavior. The exact solutions include both steady periodic and transient velocity profiles. It is found that slip conditions between the wall and the fluid produces lower amplitudes of oscillations in the flow near the oscillating wall than when no-slip assumption is utilized. Further, the relative velocity between the fluid layer at the wall and the speed of the wall is found to overshoot at a specific oscillating slip parameter or vibrational Reynolds number at certain times. In addition, it is found that wall slip reduces the transient velocity for Stokes flow while minimum transient effects for Couette flow is achieved only for large and small values of the wall slip coefficient and the gap thickness, respectively. The time needed to reach to steady periodic Stokes flow due to sine oscillations is greater than that for cosine oscillations with both wall slip and no-slip conditions. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.