Hydromagnetic Flow Illustrating the Response of a Laminar Boundary Layer to a Given Change in the Free Stream Velocity

Abstract

Solutions for the flow of a viscous, incompressible and electrically conducting fluid past an infinite porous flat plate in the presence of a uniform transverse magnetic field are obtained by using Laplace transform. It is assumed that the magnetic Reynolds number is small and velocity component normal to the plate uniform. A general formula is obtained for the velocity distribution in the boundary layer as a function of the given free stream velocity and from this, general formulae for the skin friction and displacement thickness are obtained.