Unsteady MHD two-phase Couette flow of fluid-particle suspension in an annulus

Abstract

The problem of two-phase unsteady MHD flow between two concentric cylinders of infinite length has been analysed when the outer cylinder is impulsively started. The system of partial differential equations describing the flow problem is formulated taking the viscosity of the particle phase into consideration. Unified closed form expressions are obtained for the velocities and the skin frictions for both cases of the applied magnetic field being fixed to either the fluid or the moving outer cylinder. The problem is solved using a combination of the Laplace transform technique, D'Alemberts and the Riemann-sum approximation methods. The solution obtained is validated by comparisons with the closed form solutions obtained for the steady states which has been derived separately. The governing equations are also solved using the implicit finite difference method to verify the present proposed method. The variation of the velocity and the skin friction with the dimensionless parameters occuring in the problem are illustrated graphically and discussed for both phases. © 2011 Copyright 2011 Author(s). This article is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.