MHD flow and heat transfer of micropolar fluid between two porous disks

Abstract

A numerical study is carried out for the axisymmetric steady laminar incompressible flow of an electrically conducting micropolar fluid between two infinite parallel porous disks with the constant uniform injection through the surface of the disks. The fluid is subjected to an external transverse magnetic field. The governing nonlinear equations of motion are transformed into a dimensionless form through von Karman’s similarity transformation. An algorithm based on a finite difference scheme is used to solve the reduced coupled ordinary differential equations under associated boundary conditions. The effects of the Reynolds number, the magnetic parameter, the micropolar parameter, and the Prandtl number on the flow velocity and temperature distributions are discussed. The results agree well with those of the previously published work for special cases. The investigation predicts that the heat transfer rate at the surfaces of the disks increases with the increases in the Reynolds number, the magnetic parameter, and the Prandtl number. The shear stresses decrease with the increase in the injection while increase with the increase in the applied magnetic field. The shear stress factor is lower for micropolar fluids than for Newtonian fluids, which may be beneficial in the flow and thermal control in the polymeric processing.