Influence of the magnetic field on merging flow of the Powell-Eyring fluids: an exact solution

In this article, the merging flow of the stagnation point and the stretching (or shrinking) flows for the Powell-Eyring fluid (one of the non-Newtonian fluids) in the presence of magnetic field is formulated and analyzed mathematically. An analytical solution was developed on the basis of the homotopy analysis method. The effect of the Hartmann number on fluid-velocity and skin-friction is examined. It is observed that the intensive magnetic field reduces the growth of the reverse/secondary flow which is generated after the mixing of the stagnation-point and shrinking-sheet flows. The magnetic force dominates on the viscous force for stretching as well as for shrinking flows. Furthermore, the magnetic force intensifies the axial velocity of the fluids (the Newtonian as well as the Powell-Eyring fluids) but it decays the transverse-velocity of the fluids. Present results are validated with the existing results for the Newtonian fluids and found comparable with negligible errors.