Analytic study of magnetohydrodynamic flow and boundary layer control over a wedge

Abstract

A genuine variational principle developed by Gyarmati, in the field of thermodynamics of irreversible processes unifying the theoretical requirements of technical, environmental and biological sciences is employed to study the effects of uniform suction and injection on MHD flow adjacent to an isothermal wedge with pressure gradient in the presence of a transverse magnetic field. The velocity distribution inside the boundary layer has been considered as a simple polynomial function and the variational principle is formulated. The Euler-Lagrange equation is reduced to a simple polynomial equation in terms of momentum boundary layer thickness. The velocity profiles, displacement thickness and the coefficient of skin friction are calculated for various values of wedge angle parameter m, magnetic parameter 5m and suction/injection parameter H. The present results are compared with known available results and the comparison is found to be satisfactory. The present study establishes high accuracy of results obtained by this variational technique.