On the similarity solutions of magnetohydrodynamic flows of power-law fluids over a stretching sheet ✩

A rigorous mathematical analysis is given for a magnetohydrodynamics boundary layer problem, which arises in the two-dimensional steady laminar boundary layer flow for an incompressible electrically conducting power-law fluid along a stretching flat sheet in the presence of an exterior magnetic field orthogonal to the flow. In the self-similar case, the problem is transformed into a third-order nonlinear ordinary differential equation with certain boundary conditions, which is proved to be equivalent to a singular initial value problem for an integro-differential equation of first order.With the aid of the singular initial value problem, the uniqueness and existence results for (generalized) normal solutions are established and some properties of these solutions are explored. © 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.