Unsteady magnetohydrodynamic blood flow through irregular multi-stenosed arteries

Flow of an electrically conducting fluid characterizing blood through the arteries having irregular shaped multi-stenoses in the environment of a uniform transverse magnetic-field is analysed. The flow is considered to be axisymmetric with an outline of the irregular stenoses obtained from a three-dimensional casting of a mild stenosed artery, so that the physical problem becomes more realistic from the physiological point of view. The marker and cell (MAC) and successive-over-relaxation (SOR) methods are respectively used to solve the governing unsteady magneto hydrodynamic (MHD) equations and pressure-Poisson equation quantitatively and to observe the flow separation. The results obtained show that the flow separates mostly towards the downstream of the multi-stenoses. However, the flow separation region keeps on shrinking with the increasing intensity of the magnetic-field which completely disappears with sufficiently large value of the Hartmann number. The present observations certainly have some clinical implications relating to magnetotherapy which help reducing the complex flow separation zones causing flow disorder leading to the formation and progression of the arterial diseases. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.