BEM and FEM based numerical simulations for biomagnetic fluid flow

We investigate numerically the biomagnetic fluid flow between parallel plates imposed to a magnetic source placed below the lower plate. The biomagnetic fluid is assumed to be Newtonian, viscous, incompressible, electrically nonconducting, and has magnetization varying linearly with temperature and magnetic field intensity. Both steady and unsteady, laminar, two-dimensional biomagnetic fluid flow equations taking into care the heat transfer between the plates are solved using both finite element and dual reciprocity boundary element methods. Treatment of nonlinear terms by using only the fundamental solution of the Laplace equation, and discretization of only the boundary of the region are the advantages of dual reciprocity boundary element method giving small algebraic systems to be solved at a small expense. Finite element method is capable of giving very accurate results by discretizing the region affected by the magnetic source very finely, but it results in large sized algebraic systems requiring high computational cost. The results indicate that the flow is appreciably affected with the presence of magnetic source in terms of vortices at the magnetic source area. The lengths of the vortices, and temperature increase with an increase in the intensity of the magnetic field. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.