J. Comp. & Math. Sci. Vol. 1(2), 135-144 (2010).

Effect of inclined magnetic field on unsteady

MHD flow of an incompressible
viscous fluid through a porous
medium in parallel
plate channel
Dr. M. VEERA KRISHNA*, S.V. SUNEETHA*
and S. CHAND BASHA**
*Department of Mathematics, Rayalaseema University,
Kurnool (A.P) - 518002 (India)
(veerakrishna_maths@yahoo.com; svsmaths@gmail.com)
**Assistant professor, Department of Mathematics,
Kottam College of Engineering,
Chinnatekuru, Kurnool (A.P)-518218 (India)
(chand.mathematics@gmail.com)

ABSTRACT
In this paper, we make an initial value investigation of the
unsteady flow of incompressible viscous fluid between two rigid
non-conducting rotating parallel plates bounded by a porous
medium taking hall current into account. We discuss a three
dimensional flow in a parallel plate channel in a porous medium
under the influence of inclined magnetic field. The perturbations
are created by a constant pressure gradient along the plates in
addition to the non-torsional oscillations of the upper plate while
the lower plate is at rest. The flow in the porous medium is
governed by the Brinkman's equations. The exact solution of the
velocity in the porous medium consists of steady state and transient
state. The time required for the transient state to decay is
evaluated in detail and the ultimate quasi-steady state solution
has been derived analytically, its behaviour is computationally
discussed with reference to the various governing parameters.
The shear stresses on the boundaries are also obtained analytically
and their behaviour is computationally discussed.
Key words : Hall effects, unsteady flows, parallel plate
channels, incompressible viscous fluids, Brinkman's model.
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M. Veera Krishna et al., J.Comp.&Math.Sci. Vol.1(2), 135-144 (2010).

1. INTRODUCTION

The flow between parallel plates

is a classical problem that has important applications in magneto hydro
dynamic (MHD) power generators and
pumps, accelerators, aerodynamic heating,
electrostatic precipitation polymer technology, petroleum industry, purification
of crude oil and fluid droplets, sprays,
designing cooling systems with liquid
metal, centrifugal separation of matter
from fluid and flow meters. Hartman
and Lazarus5 studied the influence of
a transverse uniform magnetic field on
the flow of a viscous incompressible
electrically conducting fluid between
two infinite parallel stationary and
insulating plates. Then the problem was
extended in numerous ways. Closed
form solutions for the velocity fields
were obtained in Ref1,3,12&13 under the
different physical effects. Some exact
and numerical solutions for the heat
transfer problem are found in Ref2&6.
In the above mentioned cases the Hall
term was ignored in applying Ohm's
Law as it has no marked effect for small
and moderate values of the magnetic
field. However, the current trend for the
application of magneto-hydrodynamics
is to words a strong magnetic field, so
that the influence of electromagnetic
force is noticeable by Cramer et al3.
Under these conditions, the Hall current
is important and it has a marked effect
on the magnitude and direction of the
current density and consequently on
the magnetic force. The unsteady hydro
magnetic viscous flow through a non-

porous or porous medium has drawn

attention in the recent years for possible
applications in Geophysical and
Cosmical fluid dynamics. The Hall effects
in the unsteady case were discussed
by Vatazhin14, Pop7 and Sakhonovski11.
Debnath et.al. 4 have studied the
effects of Hall current on unsteady hydro
magnetic flow past a porous plate in a
rotating fluid system and the structure
of the steady and unsteady flow fields
is investigated. Rao and Krishna8 studied
Hall effects on the non-torsionally
generated unsteady hydro magnetic
flow in semi-infinite expansion of an
electrically conducting viscous rotating
fluid. Krishna and Rao9 & 10 discussed
the Stokes and Eckmann problems in
magneto hydro dynamics taking Hall
effects into account. In this paper, we
make an initial value investigation of
the unsteady flow of incompressible
viscous fluid between two rigid nonconducting rotating parallel plates
bounded by a porous medium taking hall
current into account.
2. FORMULATION AND SOLUTION
OF THE PROBLEM:
We consider the unsteady flow
of an incompressible electrically conducting viscous fluid bounded by porous
medium with two non-conducting parallel
plates. A uniform transverse magnetic
field is applied to z-axis. In the presence
of strong magnetic field a current is
inclined in a direction normal to the
both electric and magnetic field viz.
the hall current of strength H0 inclined

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M. Veera Krishna et al., J.Comp.&Math.Sci. Vol.1(2), 135-144 (2010). 137

at angle to the normal to the boundaries in the transverse xz-plane. The
inclined magnetic field gives rise to a
secondary flow transverse to the
channel. The hydro magnetic flow is
generated in a fluid system by nontorsional oscillations of the upper plate.
The lower plate is at rest. The origin is
taken on the lower plate and the x-axis
parallel to the direction of the upper
plate. Since the plates are infinite in
extent, all the physical quantities
except the pressure depend on z and t
only. In the equation of motion along
x-direction, the x-component current
density- e J z H o sin and the z-component current density

e J x H o sin .

fluid, e is the magnetic permeability,,

is the coefficient of kinematic viscosity,
k is the permeability of the medium,

H o is the applied magnetic field. When

the strength of the magnetic field is
very large, the generalized Ohm's law
is modified to include the Hall current,
so that

e e
JxH (E e qxH)
H0

(2.3)

Where, q is the velocity vector,

H is the magnetic field intensity vector,
E is the electric field, J is the current
density vector, e is the cyclotron frequency, e is the electron collision time,,

We choose a Cartesian system

0(x, y, z) such that the boundary walls
are at z=0 and z=l . Z-axis being the
axis of rotation of the plates. The flow
through porous medium governed by
the Brinkman equations. The unsteady
hydro magnetic equations governing
flow through porous medium under the
influence of a transverse magnetic field
with reference to a frame are

is the fluid conductivity and, e is the

magnetic permeability.

u
1 P
d 2 u J H sin

2 e z o
u u
t
x
dz

k
(2.1)

J z m J x sin e H 0 sin u

In equation (2.3) the electron

pressure gradient, the ion-slip and
thermo-electric effects are neglected.
We also assume that the electric field
E=0 under assumptions reduces to

J x m J z sin e H 0 sin w (2.4)

(2.5)

where m e e is the Hall parameter..

w
d w J H sin

2 e x o
w w (2.2)
t

k
dz
Where, (u, w) is the velocity
components along O(x, z) directions
respectively. is the density of the

On solving equations (2.4) and

(2.5) we obtain

Jx

e H 0 sin
(mu sin w ) (2.6)
1 m 2 sin 2

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M. Veera Krishna et al., J.Comp.&Math.Sci. Vol.1(2), 135-144 (2010).

e H 0 sin
Jz
(u mw sin )
1 m 2 sin 2

(2.7)

Using the equations (2.6) and

(2.7), the equations of the motion with
reference to rotating frame are given
by
2

u
1 P
d u e H 0 sin

2
t
x
dz
(1 m 2 sin 2 )

(u mw sin )

u
k

(2.8)

Pl 2
* , P * 2 ,
l

Using non-dimensional variables, the

governing equations are (dropping
asterisks)

q
P 2 q
M 2 sin 2

2
q D 1 q
t
x z
(1 im sin )
(2.13)
where,
2

H l 2
M e 0 is the Hartmann number
v
2

w
d 2 w e H 0 sin 2
2
t
dz
(1 m 2 sin 2 )
)

(mu sin w )

D 1

w
k

(2.9)

Now combining the equations (2.8)

and (2.9), we obtain
Let q u iw ,
2

t 0,

q ae i t be i t ,

z0
t 0,

(2.11)

z l (2.12)

We introduce the following non dimensional variables are

q*

is the effect of inclined magnetic

field

(2.10)
The boundary and initial conditions are

z
z* ,
l

m e e is the Hall parameter

Also the equation (2.13) reduces to

q
1 P
2 q H o sin 2

2 e
q q
t
x
z
(1 im sin )
k

q 0,

l2
is inverse Darcy parameter
k

q l
,

t *

t
l 2
*
,

,
l2

q
2 q M 2 sin 2
P 2
D 1 q
t
z (1 im sin )

(2.14)
Corresponding initial and boundary
conditions are

q 0,
q ae i t be i t ,

t 0,

z 0 (2.15)

, t 0, z 1 (2.16)

Taking Laplace transform of

equation (2.14) using initial condition
(2.15) the governing equations in terms
of the transformed variable reduces to

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M. Veera Krishna et al., J.Comp.&Math.Sci. Vol.1(2), 135-144 (2010). 139

d 2 q M 2 sin 2
P

D 1 s q
2
s
dz
(1 im sin )

Sinh a3 z
Sinh a 3

e i t

P Cosh a1 z
a1

e a1 t

(2.17)
The relevant transformed boundary
conditions are

q 0,
q

z 1,

(2.18)

a
b

, z=0
s i s i

(2.19)

P
2

1 s
(2.20)

1 a
P
Where A=
, B= Sinh s i
2
1
1 s

P Cosh1
b
P
2

2
s i 1 s
1 s

M 2 sin 2

1 s
D 1
(1 im sin )

Taking inverse Laplace transform to the

equation (2.20), we obtain
q

P P Sinh a1 z P Cosh a1 Sinh a1 z

a1 a1 Sinh a1
a1 Sinh a1
a

Sinh a 2 z
Sinh a 2

ei t

P z (Cos n 1) ( a1 n 2 2 ) t
e
(2.21)
n 2 2 (n 2 2 a1 )

The shear stresses on the upper plate

and the lower plate are given by

Solving the equation (2.17) and

making use of the boundary conditions
(2.18) and (2.19), we obtain

q A Cosh 1 z B Sinh 1 z

az
bz
2 2
2 2
n a3
n 1 n a 2

dq
dq
U and L
dz z 1
dz z 0
3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The flow is governed by the
non-dimensional parameters M the
Hartman number, D-1 the inverse Darcy
parameter and m is the Hall parameter.
The velocity field in the porous region
is evaluated analytically its behaviour with
reference to variations in the governing
parameters has been computationally
analyzed. The profiles for u and v have
been plotted in the entire flow field in
the porous medium. The solution for
the velocity consists of three kinds of
terms 1. Steady state 2. The quasi-steady
state terms associated with non-torsional
oscillations in the boundary, 3. the
transient term involving exponentially
varying time dependence. From the
expression (2.21), it follows that the
transient component in the velocity in
the fluid region decays in dimensionless time.

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M. Veera Krishna et al., J.Comp.&Math.Sci. Vol.1(2), 135-144 (2010).

1
,
t> max
2 2 When the
/ a1 / / a1 n /
transient terms decay the steady
oscillatory solution in the fluid region
is given by

(q)steady =

P P Sinh a1 z

a1 a1 Sinh a1
P Cosh a1 Sinh a1 z

(q) oscillator y a

a1 Sinh a1
Sinh a 2 z
Sinh a 2
b

ei t

Sinh a3 z
Sinh a3

e i t

We now discuss the quasi

steady solution for the velocity for
different sets of governing parameters
namely viz. M the Hartman number and
D-1 the inverse Darcy parameter m is
the Hall parameter, P the non dimensional pressure gradient, the frequency
oscillations , a and b the constants
related to non torsional oscillations of
the boundary, for computational
analysis purpose we are fixing the axial
pressure gradient as well as a and b,

. Figures (1-6) corresponding

3
to the velocity components u and w
along the imposed pressure gradient
for different sets of governing parameters
and

when the upper boundary plate executes

non-torsional oscillations. The magnitude of the velocity u and w increases
for the sets of values 0.1 z 0.3 as
well as which reduces for all values of
z with increase in the intensity of the
magnetic field (Fig 1 & 4). The resultant
velocity q decreases with increasing
the Hartmann number M. The magnitude
of the velocity u decreases in the upper
part of the fluid region 0.1 z 0.2
while it experiences enhancement
lower part 0.3 z 0.9 with increasing
the inverse Darcy parameter D-1(Fig. 2).
The magnitude of the velocity w
increases in the upper part of the fluid
region 0.1 z 0.3, while it reduces
in lower part 0.4 z 0.9 with
increasing the inverse Darcy parameter
D-1 (Fig 5). The resultant velocity q
reduces with increasing the inverse
Darcy parameter D-1. The magnitude of
velocity u decreases in the upper part
of the fluid region while it experiences
enhancement lower part 0.3 z 0.9
and also the magnitude of velocity v
increases through out the fluid region
(Fig. 3 & 6). However the resultant
velocity q enhances with increasing
the Hall parameter m.
The shear stresses x and y on
the upper plate have been calculated for
the different variations in the governing
parameters and are tabulated in the
tables (1-2). On the upper plate we
notice that the magnitudes of x
enhances the inverse Darcy parameter
D-1 and the hall parameter m decreases

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M. Veera Krishna et al., J.Comp.&Math.Sci. Vol.1(2), 135-144 (2010). 141

with increase in the Hartmann number
M (table 1). The magnitude of y
decreases with increase in the Hartmann
number M, the inverse Darcy parameter
D-1 and the Hall parameter m fixing the

other parameters (table 2). The similar

behaviour is observed on the lower plate.
We also notice that the magnitude of
the shear stresses on the lower plate
is very small compare to its values of
the upper plate.

1.5

1.35

1.3

1.15

1.1
0.9
u

0.95

M=2

0.7

M=5

0.5

M=8

D=3000

0.35

D=4000

0.15

0.1
-0.1

D=2000

u 0.55

M=10

0.3

D=1000

0.75

-0.05

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

-0.25

-0.3

0.2

0.6

0.8

Fig. 1. The velocity profile for u

with M.

Fig. 2. The velocity profile for u

with D-1.

1.55

0.02

1.35

-0.03 0

1.15

0.4

0.95

m=1

0.75

m=2

0.55

m=3

0.35

m=4

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

-0.08

M=2

-0.13

M=5

-0.18

M=8
M=10

-0.23

0.15
-0.28

-0.05

-0.33

-0.25
z

Fig. 3. The velocity profile for u

with m.

Fig. 4. The velocity profile for v

with M.

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M. Veera Krishna et al., J.Comp.&Math.Sci. Vol.1(2), 135-144 (2010).

0
-0.05

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1
D=1000

-0.1
v

D=2000
-0.15

D=3000

-0.2

D=4000

-0.25
-0.3
z
Fig. 5. The velocity profile for v with D-1.

0.05
0
-0.05 0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1
m=1

-0.1

m=2

v -0.15

m=3

-0.2

m=4

-0.25
-0.3
-0.35
z

Fig. 6. The velocity profile for u with m.

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M. Veera Krishna et al., J.Comp.&Math.Sci. Vol.1(2), 135-144 (2010). 143

M

II

III

IV

0.045256

0.052353

0.668275

0.052876

0.060992

0.032828

0.043526

0.050346

0.043387

0.051144

II

III

IV

1000

2000

3000

1000

1000

-1

Table 1. The shear stress ( x ) on the upper plate

II

III

IV

-0.05393

-0.04055

-0.03495

-0.04804

-0.32568

-0.04525

-0.03425

-0.02434

-0.03345

-0.02245

II

III

IV

1000

2000

3000

1000

1000

-1

Table 2: The shear stress ( y ) on the upper plate

4. CONCLUSIONS
1. The resultant velocity q
enhances with increasing hall parameter m and decreases with increasing
inverse Darcy parameter D-1 as well as
the Hartmann number M. 2. On the
upper plate the magnitudes of x
enhances with increasing the hall
parameter m and the inverse Darcy
parameter D-1 decreases with increase
in the Hartmann number M. The magnitude of y decreases with increase

in the Hartmann number M, the hall

parameter m and the inverse Darcy
parameter D-1 fixing the other parameters.
3. The similar behaviour is observed
on the lower plate. 4. The magnitude
of the shear stresses on the lower plate
is very small compare to its values of
the upper plate.
REFERENCES
1. Alpher R.A. "Heat transfer in magneto
dynamic flow between parallel
plates". Int. J. Heat and mass transfer,

Journal of Computer and Mathematical Sciences Vol. 1 Issue 2, 31 March, 2010 Pages (103-273)

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10.

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Appendix:

a1

M 2 sin 2
D 1 ,
(1 im sin )

a2

M 2 sin 2
D 1 i,
(1 im sin )

a3

M 2 sin 2
P
D 1 i, P
(1 im sin )

Journal of Computer and Mathematical Sciences Vol. 1 Issue 2, 31 March, 2010 Pages (103-273)