COUPLE STRESS FLUID MODEL FOR PULSATILE FLOW OF BLOOD IN A POROUS TAPERED ARTERIAL STENOSIS UNDER MAGNETIC FIELD AND PERIODIC BODY ACCELERATION

Abstract

In this paper, a magnetic and non-Newtonian fluid model for pulsatile flow of blood with periodic body acceleration has been investigated by adopting Laplace transform and finite Hankel transform. A closed form of analytic solution is obtained for physiologically important quantities such as velocity profile, flow rate, wall shear stress and flow resistance. Effects of different physical parameters reflecting couple stress parameter, Darcy number, Hartman number, tapering angle (divergent tapered tube or convergent tapered tube), shape stenosis parameter and amplitude of periodic acceleration on wall shear stress and flow resistance have been emphasized. For any value of taper angle ([Formula: see text]) and stenotic height ([Formula: see text]), it is pertinent to point out here that the wall shear stress is less in the case of flow through the asymmetric stenosed tube as compared to the case of flow through the symmetric stenosed tube when one is in the up-stream of flow region, but it is of opposite behavior as one moves in the down-stream of flow region. It is important to note that the flow resistance increases significantly and more nonlinearly with the increase in the axial distance in the case of flow through a converging tapered artery with stenosis as compared to that of the same flow through a stenosed artery. The size of trapping bolus becomes larger for the flow of couple stress fluid through a converging tapered arterial stenosis than that of the same flow through a stenosed artery. Another important result is that as compared to the case of Newtonian fluid, the couple stress fluid behaviour plays a key role in increasing the size of trapping bolus. This investigation puts forward important observations that the asymmetric nature of stenosis considered plays a predominant role in reducing the flow resistance in the case of diseased blood vessel and the flow resistance is higher for the case of couple stress fluid than that of Newtonian fluid. Finally, some applications of the present model have been briefly discussed.