Flow Past an Impulsively Started Semi-infinite Flat Plate in the Presence of a Magnetic Field

The solution of the motion of a viscous electrically conductingfluid past a semi-infinite flat plate, which is started impulsivelyfrom rest with a constant velocity parallel to itself, in thepresence of an applied magnetic field which is parallel to theplate at infinity, is investigated. The governing partial differentialequations can be written in similarity form and reduced to aset of coupled, non-linear, singular parabolic partial differentialequations. Numerical methods have been developed previouslywhich deal with uncoupled equations. The analytical work forlarge time indicates that the steady state solution is approachedexponentially when the equations uncouple but a simple extensionof this analysis is not possible when the equations are coupled.