9th International Conference on Hydrodynamics October 11-15, 2010 Shanghai, China

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2010, 22(5), supplement: 882-884

DOI: 10.1016/S1001-6058(10)60046-7

A short review on the homotopy analysis method in fluid mechanics

Sh-ijun Liao State Key Lab of Ocean Engineering, Shanghai Jiaotong University Shanghai , China E-mail: sjliao@sjtu.edu.cn
ABSTRACT: We give a short review on the current development of homotopy analysis method (HAM), an analytic technique for strongly nonlinear problems, and its applications in fluid mechanics. KEY WORDS: nonlinear, homotopy analysis method, wave resonance, non-similarity boundary-layer flow, N-S equation

1 INTRODUCTION In history, the approximation methods are strongly dependent upon the ways of calculating and deducing. Half century ago, people deduced the so-called analytic approximations and wrote them on papers mostly by hand. At that time, one hardly deduced a perturbation approximation at more than 3rd-order by hand, because it was too complicated and rather timeconsuming. However, it was in fact the golden time for approximation methods such as perturbation techniques. Today we are in the time of computer, which completely changes not only our everyday life but also the way of calculating and deducing: a computer can do 10 fundamental operations per seconds and save huge data on diskette in a few seconds. Besides, there are some popular symbolic computation software such as Maple, Mathematica, MathLab and so on, which are rather powerful and efficient. In deed, computer leads to a profound revolution in calculating and deducing, which greatly influences the approximation methods.
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complicated nonlinear phenomena. However, it is well-known that perturbation methods have some inherent limitations. First, perturbation methods depend strongly on small physical parameter(s), but many nonlinear equations do not contain the so-called small perturbation quantity. Secondly, perturbation approximations often break down as perturbation quantity increases. Therefore, perturbation methods are valid mostly for weakly nonlinear problems. In 1992, the homotopy, a traditional concept in topogoly, was used by Liao [1] to propose an approximation technique for nonlinear problems, namely the homotopy analysis method (HAM). Using the concept of the homotopy, a nonlinear problem is transformed into a sequence of linear sub-problems that are easy to solve by means of the symbolic computation software. In 1997 Liao [2] further generalized the HAM by introducing an auxiliary nonzero parameter (called today the convergence-control parameter). Different from perturbation techniques, the HAM does not depend upon any small physical parameters, and besides provides great freedom to choose different base functions to approximate nonlinear problems. Especially, different from all other analytic approximation methods, the so-called convergence-control parameter of the HAM provides us a convenient way to ensure the convergence of series solution. Thus, the HAM overcomes the restrictions of the perturbation methods and therefore is more general. With these advantages and having the aid of high-performance computer and symbolic computation software, the HAM has been widely applied to solve many types of nonlinear differential equations in science, engineering and finance [3-4].

What kind of the approximation methods should/could we have in the time of computer? Perturbation methods are the most famous analytic techniques for nonlinear problems, which are widely applied in science and engineering. Without doubt, perturbation methods greatly deepen our understandings and richen our knowledge about

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9th International Conference on Hydrodynamics October 11-15, 2010 Shanghai, China hard to find multiple solutions of nonlinear problems even by means of advanced numerical techniques. Currently, the HAM is successfully applied to find three different types of solutions for viscous flows in a porous channel with moving walls [9], governed by the exact Navier-Stokes equation. This work also proposed a general approach to find multiple solutions of viscous flows. 2.3 Interaction of nonlinear water waves and exponential shear currents The interaction of nonlinear deepwater waves and non-uniform exponential shear currents is governed by a nonlinear PDE defined in a domain bounded by an unknown free surface. The related perturbation approximations are valid for small-amplitude waves. By means of the HAM, the original nonlinear PDE is transformed into a sequence of linear PDEs that are easily solved by symbolic computation software. Accurate approximations for large-amplitude waves with different non-uniform exponential shear currents are obtained, and the influence of the non-uniform currents on wave-amplitude and phase speed was investigated in details [10]. This work illustrates the validity of the HAM for complicated nonlinear PDEs. 2.4 Resonance condition for large-amplitude waves By means of perturbation method, Phillips [11] gave a resonance condition for four small-amplitude waves. Phillips deduction is so complicated that no one could follow him to give a wave resonance condition for more than four waves. Besides, Phillips resonance condition is only valid for weakly nonlinear waves with small amplitudes. Currently, based on the HAM, Liao [12] proposed the so-called homotopy multiple-variable method for strongly nonlinear problems. This method absorbs the basic ideas of multiple scales of perturbation techniques, but is independent of any small physical parameters at all. Thus, it is more general than multiple-scale perturbation methods. Using this new approach, Liao gave a resonance condition for arbitrary number of traveling primary waves for largeamplitudes. This resonance condition is much more general: it is valid for more than four waves with large amplitudes. Physically, this work opens a new way to study the interactions of more than four waves with strong nonlinearity. Mathematically, it suggests a new, general approach to investigate complicated nonlinear

2 CURRENT DEVELOPMENT OF HOMOTOPY ANALYSIS METHOD Since the book Beyond Perturbation [3] was published in 2003, the HAM has been further developed in theory and applied to more complicated nonlinear problems. In theory, the HAM was further generalized by constructing the homotopy, i.e. the zeroth-order deformation equation, in a much more general form, and some related theorems are proved [5]. Besides, it is proved that the famous Euler transform can be deduced in the frame of the HAM, which reveals the validity and reasonableness of the HAM from the viewpoint of pure mathematics. Furthermore, an optimal approach based on the HAM is proposed [6], which suggests a way to find the optimal value of the convergence-control parameter by means of the minimum of the residual error square of nonlinear governing equations. In applications, the HAM has been applied to solve more complicated problems governed by nonlinear partial differential equations (PDEs) in science, engineering and finance. Some applications in fluid mechanics are briefly described below. 2.1 Non-similarity boundary-layer flows Since Prandtl [7] established the theory of boundarylayer flows, a lot of related articles have been published. However, most of them are about similarity boundary-layer flows, mainly because similarity boundary-layer flows are governed by nonlinear ODEs, but non-similarity ones are governed by nonlinear PDEs. Physically, non-similarity boundary-layer flows are more general than similarity ones. However, mathematically, nonlinear PDEs are much more difficult to solve than nonlinear ODEs. By mans of the HAM, the non-similarity boundarylayer flows can be easily solved: the related nonlinear PDEs are transformed into a sequence of linear ODEs in a similar way as those for similarity boundary-layer follows, as shown in [8]. In this way, non-similarity boundary-layer flows can be solved as easily as similarity ones. This illustrates that a nonlinear PDE can sometimes be replaced by a sequence of linear ODEs. 2.2 Multiple solution of Navier-Stokes equation for a porous channel The exact Navier-Stokes equation is difficult solve in general. On the other hand, generally speaking, it is

9th International Conference on Hydrodynamics October 11-15, 2010 Shanghai, China phenomena with multiple scales or variables.

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[6] Liao S J. An optimal homotopy-analysis approach for strongly nonlinear differential equations. Commun. Nonlinear Sci. Numer. Simulat., online. [7] Prandtl L. Uueber Fluessigkeitsbewgungen bei sehr kleiner Reibung. Verhandlg. III. Int. Math. kongr. Heidelberg, 1904: 484491 [8] Kousar N, Liao S J. Series solution of non-similarity boundary-layer flows over a porous wedge. Transp. Porous Med. (online) [9] Hang X, Lin Z L, Liao S J, et al. Homotopy-based solutions of the Navier-Stokes equations for a porous channel with orthogonally moving walls. Physics of Fluids (online) [10] Cheng J, Cang J, Liao S J. On the interaction of deep water waves and exponential shear currents. Z. angew. Math. Phys., 2009,60: 450-478. [11] Phillips OM. On the dynamics of unsteady gravity waves of finite amplitude. Part 1: The elementary interactions. J. Fluid Mech., 1960,9: 193217. [12] Liao SJ. On the homotopy multiple-variable method and its applications in the interactions of nonlinear gravity waves. arXiv:1005.5539.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This work is partly supported by NSFC and State Key Lab of Ocean Engineering. REFERENCES
[1] Liao S J. Proposed homotopy analysis techniques for the solution of nonlinear problems, Ph. D. Thesis, Shanghai, Shanghai Jiaotong Univ., 1992. [2] Liao S J. An approximate solution technique which does not depend upon small parameters (Part 2): an application in fluid mechanics, Int. J. Non-Linear Mech., 1997, 32(5): 815-822. [3] Liao S J. Beyond Perturbation: Introduction to the Homotopy Analysis Method, Chapman & Hall/CRC Press, 2003. [4] Liao S J, Tan Y. A general approach to obtain series solutions of nonlinear differential equation. Studies in Applied Mathematics, 2007, 119: 297-354. [5] Liao S J. Notes on the homotopy analysis method: Some definitions and theorems. Commun. Nonlinear Sci. Numer. Simulat., 2009, 14: 983-997