Magnetohydrodynamic Free Convective Couette Flow With Suction and Injection

Abstract

This paper considers the unsteady MHD free convective Couette flow of a viscous incompressible electrically conducting fluid between two parallel vertical porous plates. Both cases of the applied magnetic field being fixed either to the fluid or to the moving porous plate are considered. The solution of the governing equations has been obtained by using a Laplace transform technique. However, the Riemann-sum approximation method is used to invert the Laplace domain to the time domain. The unified solution obtained for the velocity have been used to compute the skin friction, while the temperature has been used to compute the Nusselt number. The effect of various flow parameters entering into the problem such as Prandtl number, Grashof number, and the suction/injection parameter are discussed with the aid of line graphs. The skin friction have been seen to decrease with both suction and injection on the surface of the moving plate when the channel is being cooled, while on the stationary plate, the magnitude of the skin friction increases with injection.