Applied Mathematics and Computation 157 (2004) 1–9

www.elsevier.com/locate/amc

A new algorithm for solving classical

Blasius equation q
Lei Wang
Department of Mathematics, Xixi Campus, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310028,
PeopleÕs Republic of China

Abstract
In this paper, a reliable algorithm is employed to investigate the classical Blasius
equation. The algorithm is based mainly on applying the Adomian decomposition
method to the transformation of the Blasius equation. The results demonstrate reli-
ability and efficiency of the proposed algorithm.
Ó 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Blasius equation; Adomian decompositon method

1. Introduction

A great deal of interest has been focused on the steady flow of viscous
incompressible fluids. Keulegen [1] investigated the case of two parallel
streams, where the upper stream was moving and the lower one was at rest. An
approximate solution has been obtained for this model. Lock [2] studied two
cases, where the lower stream was at rest as well as when it was in motion. In
[3], Potter extended the study to two fluids of different viscosities and densities,
where both fluids were moving co-current with different velocities. The velocity
distribution in the boundary layers was well addressed [3]. Recently, Abu-Sitta
[4] worked in a differential equation of mixing layer that occurs in Blasius

q
The work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation (grant no. 10001029) of
China.
E-mail address: wl-hxx@zju.edu.cn (L. Wang).

0096-3003/$ - see front matter Ó 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.amc.2003.06.011
2 L. Wang / Appl. Math. Comput. 157 (2004) 1–9

solutions for flow past a flat plate. The existence of a solution for this model
was successfully addressed and established in [4] by using the technique of Weyl
[5].
The present work is motivated by the desire to obtain analytical and
numerical solutions to classical Blasius system. The goal of this note can be
achieved by implementing Adomian decomposition method [6,7]. In recent
years Adomian decomposition method has been used in obtaining approximate
solutions of a wide class of differential, integral and integro-differential equa-
tion [8–14]. The method provides the solution in a rapidly convergent series
with components that are elegantly computed. We obtain the result in agree-
ment with the one in [14] and [15].

2. Formulation of Adomian’s method

AdomianÕs decomposition method is used for solving operate equations of

the form
u ¼ v þ Nu; ð2:1Þ
where N : X ! X is a nonlinear mapping from a Banach space X into itself and
v 2 X is known. Since the method does not resort to linearization or
assumptions of week nonlinearity, the nonlinearities which can be handled are
quite general and the solutions generated may be more realistic than those
achieved by simplifying the model of the physical problem to achieve condi-
tions required for other techniques [15].
AdomianÕs method assumes that the solution u can be expanded as an
infinite series:
X
1
u¼ un ð2:2Þ
n¼0

with un 2 X , 8n. The image Nu has an expansion

X
1
Nu ¼ An ð2:3Þ
n¼0

with An 2 X , 8n. Substituting (2.2) and (2.3) into (2.1) gives

X
1 X
1
un ¼ v þ An ð2:4Þ
n¼0 n¼0

which is satisfied formally if we set

u0 ¼ v; ð2:5Þ
unþ1 ¼ An : ð2:6Þ
 L. Wang / Appl. Math. Comput. 157 (2004) 1–9 3

Thus, we need to determine the so-called Adomian polynomials An ; n ¼

1; 2; 3; . . . To determine the A0n s, a scalar parameter k is introduced to set
X
1
uðkÞ ¼ kn un ð2:7Þ
n¼0

and
X
1
NuðkÞ ¼ k n An : ð2:8Þ
n¼0

As in [6,7], we can deduce that the coefficients An , n ¼ 1; 2; 3; . . . are given by

1 dn
An ¼ NuðkÞjk¼0 : ð2:9Þ
n! dkn
Thus,
A0 ¼ NuðkÞjk¼0 ;
d1
A1 ¼ NuðkÞjk¼0 ¼ ðDN Þðu0 Þu1 ;
dk1
1
A2 ¼ ðDN Þðu0 Þu2 þ ðD2 N Þðu0 Þu21 ;
2!
and so on, where D0 N ðu0 Þ denotes the rth Frechet derivative of N at u0 2 X . We
should note that while An is a polynomial in u0 ; u1 ; u2 ; . . . ; its dependence on u0
is decided by the form of N and its derivatives. However generally, An depends
only on u0 ; u1 ; . . . ; un so that (2.5) allows successive calculation of un ,
n ¼ 0;P1; 2; . . . at any stage the solution can be approximated by the partial sum
N 1
sN ¼ j¼0 uj .

3. Application to the Blasius equation

Consider the following boundary value problem:

f 000 þ f 00 f ¼ 0 ð3:1Þ
with boundary conditions
f ¼ f 0 ¼ 0; at g ¼ 0; f0 ! 1 at g ! 1: ð3:2Þ
The problem arises in the boundary layer flow and is well known as the
classical Blasius system.
First we used the method of Wazwaz [11], that is, we applied the Adomian
decomposition method to (3.1) and used Pade approximants to deal with the
infinity boundary condition in (3.2).
4 L. Wang / Appl. Math. Comput. 157 (2004) 1–9

Denote
Lf ¼ f 00 f ; ð3:3Þ
where the differential operator L is given by
d3
L¼ :
dg3
The inverse operator L1 is therefore considered an 3-fold integral operator
defined by
Z gZ gZ g
L1 ¼ ðÞ dg dg dg:
0 0 0
1
Operating with L on (3.1), it then follows:
g2
f ðgÞ ¼ f ð0Þ þ f 0 ð0Þ þ f 00 ð0Þ þ L1 ðf 00 f Þ: ð3:4Þ
2
Let f 00 ð0Þ ¼ a, together with f ¼ f 0 ¼ 0, at g ¼ 0
g2
f ðgÞ ¼ a þ L1 ðf 00 f Þ: ð3:5Þ
2
The Adomian decomposition method introduces the following expression:
X
1
f ðgÞ ¼ fn ðgÞ ð3:6Þ
n¼0

for the solution f ðgÞ of (3.1), where the components fn ðgÞ will be determined
recurrently according to a recursive relation. Moreover, the method defines the
nonlinear function F ðf ðgÞÞ by an infinite series of polynomials
X
1
F ðf ðgÞÞ ¼ An ; ð3:7Þ
n¼0

where An are the so-called Adomian polynomials that represent the nonlinear
term F ðf ðgÞÞ and can be calculated for various classes of nonlinear operators
according to specific algorithms presented in Section 2.
Subsituting (3.6) and (3.7) into (3.5) yields
!
X1
g2 X1
yn ¼ a þ L1 An : ð3:8Þ
n¼0
2 n¼0

To determine the components fn , n P 0, we first identify the zeroth com-

ponent f0 ðxÞ by all terms that arise from the boundary condition at x ¼ 0.
Second the remaining components of f ðgÞ can be determined recurrently as
follows:
 L. Wang / Appl. Math. Comput. 157 (2004) 1–9 5

g2
f0 ðgÞ ¼ a ;
2 ð3:9Þ
fkþ1 ðgÞ ¼ L1 ðAk Þ:
The accuracy level of the approximation of f ðgÞ can be dramatically en-
hanced by computing components as far as we like. The n-term approximant
X
n1
/n ¼ fk : ð3:10Þ
k¼0

By using (2.9), we obtain the following few terms of the Adomian polyno-
mials An :
A0 ¼ f000 f0 ;
A1 ¼ f000 f1  f0 f100 ;
A2 ¼ f000 f2  f100 f1  f200 f0 ;
A3 ¼ f000 f3  f100 f2  f200 f1  f300 f0 ;
and so on. From (3.9), it is easy to determine fn :
g2
f0 ¼ a ;
2
f1 ¼ 0:00833333a2 g5 ;
f2 ¼ 0:000272817a3 g8 ;
f3 ¼ 0:939454 106 a4 g11 ;
f4 ¼ 3:19999 107 a5 g14 :
We use
f ¼ f0 þ f1 þ f2 þ f3 þ f4 ð3:11Þ
as the approximate solution of Eq. (3.1).
Our goal now is to determine the constant a by using the condition
f 0 ! 1 at g ! 1:
By the method of [11], we use the Pade approximants [L=M], a Pade ap-
proximant to the power series (3.11) is defined by
PL ðgÞ
½L=M ¼ ; ð3:12Þ
QM ðgÞ
where PL and QM are polynomials of degrees at most L and M, respectively.
Besides we may consider QM ð0Þ ¼ 1, and PL and QL have no common factors.
6 L. Wang / Appl. Math. Comput. 157 (2004) 1–9

To determine the Pade approximants [2/2], it requires choosing C0 , C1 , C2 ,

B1 and B2 :
f ð1 þ B1 g þ B2 g2 Þ ¼ C0 þ C1 g þ C2 g2 : ð3:13Þ
Expanding (3.13) and comparing the coefficients of gk for k ¼ 0, 1, . . . ; 4 to
zero, we can get the value of C0 , C1 , C2 , B1 and B2 . But, unfortunately it is
useless by this method. The same as [3/3]. Thus we cannot apply the method
presented [11] to Eq. (3.1) directly.
In order to overcome this difficulty, we use a transformation to the (3.1),
which change the infinity domain to the finity domain of [0,1].
Let y ¼ f 00 ðgÞ and x ¼ f 0 ðgÞ, we can see that Eq. (3.1) can be transformed
into the singular nonlinear boundary value problem
 00
yy þ x ¼ 0; 0 < x < 1;
ð3:14Þ
y 0 ð0Þ ¼ 0; yð1Þ ¼ 0:
We applied the Adomian decomposition method to (3.14). From
f 00 ð0Þ ¼ yð0Þ, we get yð0Þ ¼ a, then (3.14) can be transformed to
x
y 00 þ ¼ 0:
y
Denote
x
Ly ¼  ; ð3:15Þ
y
where the differential operator L is given by
d2
L¼ :
dx2
The inverse operator L1 is therefore considered an 2-fold integral operator
defined by
Z xZ x
L1 ¼ ðÞ dx dx:
0 0

Operating with L1 on (3.15), it then follows:

 
0 1 x
yðxÞ ¼ a þ y ð0Þx þ L  ð3:16Þ
y
where a ¼ yð0Þ and y 0 ð0Þ ¼ 0.
The Adomian decomposition method introduces the following expression:
X
1
yðxÞ ¼ yn ðxÞ ð3:17Þ
n¼0
 L. Wang / Appl. Math. Comput. 157 (2004) 1–9 7

for the solution yðxÞ of (3.14), where the components yn ðxÞ will be determined
recurrently according to a recursive relation. Moreover, the method defines the
nonlinear function F ðyðxÞÞ by an infinite series of polynomials
X
1
F ðyðxÞÞ ¼ An ; ð3:18Þ
n¼0

where An are the so-called Adomian polynomials that represent the nonlinear
term F ðyðxÞÞ and can be calculated for various classes of nonlinear operators
according to specific algorithms presented in Section 2.
Subsituting (3.17) and (3.18) into (3.16) yields
!
X1 X1
1
yn ¼ a þ L An ð3:19Þ
n¼0 n¼0

To determine the components yn , n P 0, we first identify the zeroth com-

ponent y0 ðxÞ by all terms that arise from the boundary condition at x ¼ 0.
Second the remaining components of yðxÞ can be determined recurrently as
follows:
y0 ðxÞ ¼ a
ykþ1 ðxÞ ¼ L1 ðAk Þ: ð3:20Þ
The accuracy level of the approximation of yðxÞ can be dramatically en-
hanced by computing components as far as we like. The n-term approximant
X
n1
/n ¼ yk : ð3:21Þ
k¼0

By using (2.9), we obtain the following few terms of the Adomian polyno-
mials An :
x
A0 ¼  ;
y0
y1 x
A1 ¼ 2 ;
y0
 2 
y1 y2
A2 ¼ x 3  2 ;
y0 y0
 
y3 2y1 y2 y 3
A3 ¼ x  2 þ 3  14 ;
y0 y0 y0
and so on. From (3.20), it is easy to determine yn :
y0 ¼ a;
8 L. Wang / Appl. Math. Comput. 157 (2004) 1–9

x3
y1 ¼  ;
6a
x6
y2 ¼  ;
180a3
x9
y3 ¼  ;
2160a5
x12
y4 ¼  :
19 008a7
We use
y ¼ y0 þ y1 þ y2 þ y3 þ y4
as the approximate solution of equation (3.14)
x3 x6 x9
y ¼a   :
6a 180a3 2160a5
Solving yð1Þ ¼ 0, we get the root
a ¼ 0:457647:
If we use
y ¼ y0 þ y1 þ y2 þ y3 þ y4 þ y5
as the approximate solution, then we get
a ¼ 0:453539:
The result obtained above are in full agreement with the calculation in [14]
and [15].
After we obtain the value f 00 ð0Þ ¼ a, the Blasius equation has been changed
into a initial value differential equations. We can apply many numerical
methods to solve it, for example, the Runge–Kutta method.

4. Conclusion

In the above discussion it was shown that with the proper investment of
Adomian decomposition method, it is possible to attain analytic solution to
classical Blasius equation. The proposed technique in this work requires less
computational work. Comparing the obtained results with other works, the
numerical result is reliable. This confirms our belief that the efficiency of the
Adomian decompositon technique gives it much wider applicability.
 L. Wang / Appl. Math. Comput. 157 (2004) 1–9 9

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