Effect of Gravitational Acceleration on Unsteady Biomagnetic Fluid Flow

Abstract

This paper investigates the effect of gravitational acceleration on unsteady biomagnetic fluid flow in a channel under the influence of a spatially varying magnetic field. The study on biomagnetic fluid under the action of an applied magnetic field is important in the development of Biomagnetic Fluid Dynamics (BFD). Most existing studies analyze flows in steady state conditions and the effect of gravitational acceleration has not been addressed. For the mathematical model, the Navier-Stokes equations, energy equation and an additional term that describes the magnetic force and gravitational effect which is consistent with the principles of ferrohydrodynamics (FHD) are employed. The nonlinear governing differential equations are non-dimensionalized and then discretized based on a finite difference technique on a staggered grid system. The solution of these problems is obtained numerically using pressure correction method with SIMPLE algorithm. For a range of governing parameters such as the magnetic number MnF and Richardson number Ri, the numerical results show that the gravitational acceleration has a profound effect on both velocity and temperature profiles. The streamlines plotted also show that vortices appear near the lower plate where the magnetic source is located.