MHD flow through a channel of varying gap

Abstract

To understand the effect of magnetic field on the abnormal flow conditions caused by the presence of stenosis in arteries, analytical solutions are obtained for the steady laminar conducting flow of an incompressible Newtonian fluid in an axisytnmetric channel of varying gap. Three approximation methods are developed depending upon the geometrical configuration. The results obtained are applied to study the flow of a conducting fluid through a smooth constriction. It is observed that the overall effect of magnetic field is to decrease the resistance to flow and shear stress at the wall and to reduce the abnormalities of flow due to irregular boundaries.