Impact of Cattaneo-Christov heat flux on electroosmotic transport of third-order fluids in a magnetic environment

. In the case of steady flow of a fluid under the combined influence of external electric and magnetic fields, the fluid moves forward by forming an axial momentum boundary layer. With this end in view a study has been performed here to investigate the problem of entropy generation during electroosmotically modulated flow of a third-order electrically conducting fluid flowing on a microchannel bounded by silicon-made parallel plates under the influence of a magnetic field, by paying due consideration to the steric effect. The associated mechanism of heat transfer has also been duly taken care of, by considering Cattaneo-Christov heat flux. A suitable finite difference scheme has been developed for the numerical procedure. A detailed study of the velocity and temperature distributions has been made by considering their variations with respect to different physical parameters involved in the problem. The results of numerical computation have been displayed graphically. The computational work has been carried out by considering blood as the working fluid, with the motivation of exploring some interesting phenomena in the context of hemodynamical flow in micro-vessels. Among other variables, parametric variations of the important physical variables, viz. i) skin friction and ii) Nusselt number have been investigated. The study confirms that the random motion of the fluid particles can be controlled by a suitable adjustment of the intensity of an externally applied magnetic field in the transverse direction. It is further revealed that the Nusselt number diminishes, as the Prandtl number gradually increases; however, a steady increase in the Nusselt number occurs with increase in thermal relaxation. Entropy generation is also found to be enhanced with increase in Joule heating. The results of the present study have also been validated in a proper manner.