Unsteady MHD two-phase Couette flow of fluid-particle suspension

The problem of two-phase unsteady MHD Couette flow between two parallel infinite plates has been studied taking the viscosity effect of the two phases into consideration. Unified closed form expressions are obtained for the velocities and the skin frictions for both cases of the applied magnetic field being fixed to either the fluid or the moving plate. The novelty of this study is that we have obtained the solution of the unsteady flow using the Laplace transform technique, D'Alemberts method and the Riemann-sum approximation method. The solution obtained is validated by assenting comparisons with the closed form solutions obtained for the steady states which have been derived separately and also by the implicit finite difference method. Graphical result for the velocity of both phases based on the semi-analytical solutions are presented and discussed. A parametric study of some of the physical parameters involved in the problem is conducted. The skin friction for both the fluid and the particle phases decreases with time on both plates until a steady state is reached, it is also observed to decrease with increase in the particle viscosity on the moving plate while an opposite behaviour has been noticed on the stationary plate. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.