Unsteady hydromagnetic Couette flow in a rotating system (Q5902945)

Unsteady hydromagnetic Couette flow under a uniform transverse magnetic field is investigated using Laplace transform method. The induced magnetic field is neglected and the analytical solution contains two parameters M, the Hartmann number and K the rotation parameter. Two cases are considered: one is the impulsive motion of the plate and the other is the accelerated motion. In the case of impulsive motion, it is found that for large time the thickness of the boundary layer decreases with increase in either K or M or both. In the numerical calculations, the values of \(K^ 2\) and \(M^ 2\) are taken up to 12 and 10, respectively. This is a low magnetic Reynolds number approximation and needs some explanation in regard to the values of the parameters involved.