A Numerical Study of Oscillating Peristaltic Flow of Generalized Maxwell Viscoelastic Fluids Through a Porous Medium

Abstract

This article presents a numerical study on oscillating peristaltic flow of generalized Maxwell fluids through a porous medium. A sinusoidal model is employed for the oscillating flow regime. A modified Darcy-Brinkman model is utilized to simulate the flow of a generalized Maxwell fluid in a homogenous, isotropic porous medium. The governing equations are simplified by assuming long wavelength and low Reynolds number approximations. The numerical and approximate analytical solutions of the problem are obtained by a semi-numerical technique, namely the homotopy perturbation method. The influence of the dominating physical parameters such as fractional Maxwell parameter, relaxation time, amplitude ratio, and permeability parameter on the flow characteristics are depicted graphically. The size of the trapped bolus is slightly enhanced by increasing the magnitude of permeability parameter whereas it is decreased with increasing amplitude ratio. Furthermore, it is shown that in the entire pumping region and the free pumping region, both volumetric flow rate and pressure decrease with increasing relaxation time, whereas in the co-pumping region, the volumetric flow rate is elevated with rising magnitude of relaxation time.