The magnetohydrodynamic flow past a flat plate

Abstract

The uniform steady flow of an incompressible, viscous, electrically conducting fluid is distorted by the presence of a symmetrically oriented semi-infinite flat plate. The ambient magnetic field is coincident with the ambient velocity field. The description of the resulting fields depends on the physical co-ordinates measured in units of Reynolds number and on the two parameters ε = ωμν and β = μ H 2 /ρ v 2 . This description of the fields is approximated in three different ways and essentially covers the full range of ε and β. In particular, when β [Gt ] 1, no steady flow which is uniform at large distances from the plate exists.