Combined Effect of Hall and Ion-Slip Currents on Unsteady MHD Couette Flows in a Rotating System

Abstract

The unsteady MHD Couette flows of a viscous incompressible electrically conducting fluid between two parallel plates in a rotating system are studied taking hall and ion-slip currents into consideration. The relevant equations are solved analytically using the Laplace transform techniques. A unified closed form analytical expressions for the velocity and the skin friction for the cases; when the magnetic lines of force are fixed relative to the fluid or to the moving plate are derived. The solution obtained shows that the inclusion of Hall and ion-slip currents gives some interesting results. It is found that the influence of the Hall and ion slip parameters have a reducing effect on the magnitude of the secondary velocity especially when the magnetic lines of force are fixed relative to the moving plate. It is also interesting to note that the presence of Hall and ion-slip currents led to an increase in the time it took both the primary and the secondary velocities to achieve their steady state values. On the other hand, the resultant skin friction on the moving plate decreases with an increase in both the Hall and ion-slip parameters when the magnetic field is fixed relative to the fluid, while the opposite behaviour is noticed the magnetic field is fixed relative to the moving plate.