On the solution of MHD Jeffery–Hamel problem involving flow between two nonparallel plates with a blood flow application

Abstract

The Jeffery–Hamel flow phenomenon appears in a variety of real-world applications involving the flow of two nonparallel plates. BY using a similarity transformation derived from the equation of continuity, partial differential equations determining flow characteristics are translated into nonlinear ordinary differential equations. The problem involves the flow of a specific type of fluid, namely, an incompressible and electrically conducting fluid, between two nonparallel plates. The flow is assumed to be steady, two-dimensional, and subject to certain boundary conditions. Specifically, the plates are impermeable, and the fluid adheres to a no-slip condition, resulting in zero fluid velocity at the plates' surfaces. Moreover, the problem incorporates the effects of magnetic fields and pressure fluctuations, making it highly applicable to scenarios, such as blood flow through arteries in the human body, which can be modeled as a special case of the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) Jeffery–Hamel problem referred to as the (MHD) blood pressure equation. This work compares two numerical approaches for solving the MHDs Jeffery–Hamel problem: B-spline and Bernstein polynomial collocation. The given approaches are used to discretize and transform the equation into a system of algebraic equations. Matrix algebra techniques are then used to solve the resultant system. A complete error analysis and convergence rates for different grid sizes are derived for both methods and are used to compare the accuracy and efficiency of the two approaches. Both approaches produce correct solutions, according to the numerical findings, although the Bernstein polynomial collocation method is more efficient and accurate than the B-spline collocation.