In this study, we are concerned with the asymptotic stability towards a rarefaction wave of the solution to an outflow problem for the Navier-Stokes Korteweg equations of a compressible fluid in the half space. We assume that the space-asymptotic states and the boundary data satisfy some conditions so that the time-asymptotic state of this solution is a rarefaction wave. Then we show that the rarefaction wave is non-linearly stable, as time goes to infinity, provided that the strength of the wave is weak and the initial perturbation is small. The proof is mainly based on $L^{2}$-energy method and some time-decay estimates in $L^{p}$-norm for the smoothed rarefaction wave.

In this paper, convergence rates of solutions towards stationary solutions for the outflow problem of planar magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) are investigated. Inspired by the relationship between MHD and Navier-Stokes, we prove that the global solutions of the planar MHD converge to the corresponding stationary solutions of Navier-Stokes equations. We obtain the corresponding convergence rates based on the weighted energy method when the initial perturbation belongs to some weighted Sobolev space.

Electrophoresis of a cylinder suspended in a cylindrical tube is analytically studied in the limit of thin electric double layer approximation. The electric and fluid flow fields within the annulus, and the cylinder velocities are analytically obtained in bipolar coordinates. The results are analyzed with various values of dimensionless parameters: eccentricity, cylinder-to-tube radius ratio and tube-to-cylinder zeta potential ratio (i.e., tube-to-cylinder velocity scale ratio). The analysis shows that microvortices are generated within the annulus. By changing the parameters, different flow patterns can be created, which shows potential for mixing enhancement in micro/nanofluidics. Moreover, the cylinder not only translates but also rotates when the cylinder and tube are eccentric. The cylinder rotation might be utilized as a micromotor or an electric field detector. The cylinder trajectories show that the cylinder may approach the tube wall or rest within the tube depending on the zeta potential ratio.

In this paper, we propose to use the interior functions of an hierarchical basis for high order BDMp elements to enforce the divergence-free condition of a magnetic field B approximated by the H(div)BDMp basis. The resulting constrained finite element method can be used to solve magnetic induction equation in MHD equations. The proposed procedure is based on the fact that the scalar (p–1)-th order polynomial space on each element can be decomposed as an orthogonal sum of the subspace defined by the divergence of the interior functions of the p-th order BDMp basis and the constant function. Therefore, the interior functions can be used to remove element-wise all higher order terms except the constant in the divergence error of the finite element solution of the B-field. The constant terms from each element can be then easily corrected using a first order H(div) basis globally. Numerical results for a 3-D magnetic induction equation show the effectiveness of the proposed method in enforcing divergence-free condition of the magnetic field.

The static shape of drop under electrowetting actuation is well studied and recent electrowetting theory and experiments confirm that the local contact angle (microscopic angle) is unaffected while the apparent contact angle (macroscopic angle) is characterized by the Lippmann-Young equation. On the other hand, the evolution of the drop motion under electrowetting actuation has received less attention. In this paper, we investigate the motion of a conducting water drop on an electrowetting device (EWD) using the level set method. We derive a contact line two-phase flow model under electrowetting actuation using energy dissipation by generalizing an existing contact line model without the electric field. Our model is consistent with the static electrowetting theory as the dynamic contact angle satisfies the static Young's equation under equilibrium conditions. Our steady state results show that the apparent contact angle predicted by our model satisfies the Lippmann-Young's relation. Our numerical results based on the drop maximum deformation agree with experimental observations and static electrowetting theory. Finally, we show that for drop motion our results are not as good due to the difficulty of computing singular electric field accurately. Nonetheless, they provide useful insights and ameaningful first step towards the understanding of the drop dynamics under electrowetting actuation.

An analysis is performed to study the influence of local thermal non-equilibrium (LTNE) on unsteady MHD laminar boundary layer flow of viscous, incompressible fluid over a vertical stretching plate embedded in a sparsely packed porous medium in the presence of heat generation/absorption. The flow in the porous medium is governed by Brinkman-Forchheimer extended Darcy model. A uniform heat source or sink is presented in the solid phase. By applying similarity analysis, the governing partial differential equations are transformed into a set of time dependent non-linear coupled ordinary differential equations and they are solved numerically by Runge-Kutta Fehlberg method along with shooting technique. The obtained results are displayed graphically to illustrate the influence of different physical parameters on the velocity, temperature profile and heat transfer rate for both fluid and solid phases. Moreover, the numerical results obtained in this study are compared with the existing literature in the case of LTE and found that they are in good agreement.

A numerical scheme based on the immersed interface method (IIM) is developed to simulate the dynamics of an axisymmetric viscous drop under an electric field. In this work, the IIM is used to solve both the fluid velocity field and the electric potential field. Detailed numerical studies on the numerical scheme show a second-order convergence. Moreover, our numerical scheme is validated by the good agreement with previous analytical models, and numerical results from the boundary integral simulations. Our method can be extended to Navier-Stokes fluid flow with nonlinear inertia effects.

In this paper, the nonlinear boundary value problem (BVP) for the Jeffery-Hamel flow equations taking into consideration the magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) effects is solved by using the modified Adomian decomposition method. We first transform the original two-dimensional MHD Jeffery-Hamel problem into an equivalent third-order BVP, then solve by the modified Adomian decomposition method for analytical approximations. Ultimately, the effects of Reynolds number and Hartmann number are discussed.

An analysis is carried out to study the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) flow and heat transfer characteristics of an electrically conducting dusty non-Newtonian fluid, namely, the upper convected Maxwell (UCM) fluid over a stretching sheet. The stretching velocity and the temperature at the surface are assumed to vary linearly with the distance from the origin. Using a similarity transformation, the governing nonlinear partial differential equations of the model problem are transformed into coupled non-linear ordinary differential equations and the equations are solved numerically by a second order finite difference implicit method known as the Keller-box method. Comparisons with the available results in the literature are presented as a special case. The effects of the physical parameters on the fluid velocity, the velocity of the dust particle, the density of the dust particle, the fluid temperature, the dust-phase temperature, the skin friction, and the wall-temperature gradient are presented through tables and graphs. It is observed that, Maxwell fluid reduces the wall-shear stress. Also, the fluid particle interaction reduces the fluid temperature in the boundary layer. Furthermore, the results obtained for the flow and heat transfer characteristics reveal many interesting behaviors that warrant further study on the non-Newtonian fluid flow phenomena, especially the dusty UCM fluid flow phenomena.

An exact self-similar solution is used to investigate current sheet formation at a magnetic neutral line in incompressible Hall magnetohydrodynamics. The collapse to a current sheet is modelled as a finite-time singularity in the solution for electric current density at the neutral line. We establish that a finite-time collapse to the current sheet can occur in Hall magnetohydrodynamics, and we find a criterion for the finite-time singularity in terms of the initial conditions. We derive an asymptotic solution for the singularity formation and a formula for the singularity formation time. The analytical results are illustrated by numerical solutions, and we also investigate an alternative similarity reduction. Finally, we generalise our solution to incorporate resistive, viscous and electron inertia terms.

An investigation is carried out on mixed convection boundary layer flow of an incompressible and electrically conducting viscoelastic fluid over a linearly stretching surface in which the heat transfer includes the effects of viscous dissipation, elastic deformation, thermal radiation, and non-uniform heat source/sink for two general types of non-isothermal boundary conditions. The governing partial differential equations for the fluid flow and temperature are reduced to a nonlinear system of ordinary differential equations which are solved analytically using the homotopy analysis method (HAM). Graphical and numerical demonstrations of the convergence of the HAM solutions are provided, and the effects of various parameters on the skin friction coefficient and wall heat transfer are tabulated. In addition it is demonstrated that previously reported solutions of the thermal energy equation given in [1] do not converge at the boundary, and therefore, the boundary derivatives reported are not correct.

In this paper, we present a new model developed in order to analyze phenomena which arise in the solidification of binary mixtures using phase-field method, which incorporates the convection effects and the action of magnetic field. The model consists of flow, concentration, phase field and energy systems which are nonlinear evolutive and coupled systems. It represents the non-isothermal anisotropic solidification process of a binary mixture together with the motion in a melt with the applied magnetic field. To illustrate our model, numerical simulations of the influence of magnetic-field on the evolution of dendrites during the solidification of the binary mixture of Nickel-Copper (Ni-Cu) are developed. The results demonstrate that the dendritic growth under the action of magnetic-field can be simulated by using our model.

A multi-hierarchy simulation model aiming magnetic reconnection studies is developed and improved in which macroscopic and microscopic physics are computed consistently and simultaneously. Macroscopic physics is solved by mag-netohydrodynamics (MHD) algorithm, while microscopic dynamics is expressed by particle-in-cell (PIC) algorithm. The multi-hierarchy model relies on the domain decomposition method, and macro- and micro-hierarchies are interlocked smoothly by hand-shake scheme. As examination, plasma flow injection is simulated in the multi-hierarchy model. It is observed that plasmas flow from a macro-hierarchy to a micro-hierarchy across the magnetic field smoothly and continuously.

This paper is devoted to the numerical approximation of a degenerate anisotropic elliptic problem. The numerical method is designed for arbitrary space-dependent anisotropy directions and does not require any specially adapted coordinate system. It is also designed to be equally accurate in the strongly and the mildly anisotropic cases. The method is applied to the Euler-Lorentz system, in the drift-fluid limit. This system provides a model for magnetized plasmas.

In this paper we propose a development of the finite difference method, called the tailored finite point method, for solving steady magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) duct flow problems with a high Hartmann number. When the Hartmann number is large, the MHD duct flow is convection-dominated and thus its solution may exhibit localized phenomena such as the boundary layer. Most conventional numerical methods can not efficiently solve the layer problem because they are lacking in either stability or accuracy. However, the proposed tailored finite point method is capable of resolving high gradients near the layer regions without refining the mesh. Firstly, we devise the tailored finite point method for the scalar inhomogeneous convection-diffusion problem, and then extend it to the MHD duct flow which consists of a coupled system of convection-diffusion equations. For each interior grid point of a given rectangular mesh, we construct a finite-point difference operator at that point with some nearby grid points, where the coefficients of the difference operator are tailored to some particular properties of the problem. Numerical examples are provided to show the high performance of the proposed method.