International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow

Purpose – The objective of the present study is to investigate the effect of arbitrary magnetic Reynolds number on steady flow of an incompressible conducting viscous liquid in convergent-divergent channels under the influence of an externally applied homogeneous magnetic field.

Design/methodology/approach – The solution of the non-linear 2D Navier-Stokes equations modeling the flow field is obtained using a perturbation technique coupled with a special type of Hermite-Padé approximation method implemented numerically on MAPLE and a bifurcation study is performed.

Findings – The results show that increasing values of magnetic Reynolds number causes a general decrease in the fluid velocity around the central region of the channel. The flow reversal control is also observed by increasing magnetic field intensity. The bifurcation study reveals the solution branches and turning points.

Practical implications – The reported results are very useful in the field of engineering flow control and industrial metal casting for the control of molten metal flows.

Originality/value – Effect of arbitrary magnetic Reynolds on the overall flow structure in converging-diverging channels are presented and studied using a newly developed numerical approach.