Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 March 2011
In this paper, a new algorithm is proposed to solve the velocity and temperature fields in the thermal boundary layer flow over a semi-infinite flat plate. Both the flow and heat transfer solutions are calculated accurately by the Laplace Adomian decomposition method, Padé approximant and the optimal design concept. The Laplace Adomian decomposition method (LADM) is a combination of the numerical Laplace transform algorithm with the Adomian decomposition method (ADM). A hybrid method of the LADM combined with the Padé approximant, named the LADM-Padé approximant technique, is introduced to solve the thermal boundary layer problems directly without any small parameter assumptions, linearizatons or transformations of the boundary value problems to a pair of initial value problems. The LADM-Padé approximant solutions here in are given to show the accuracy in comparison with different method solutions.