This paper aims to examine the unsteady flow of an incompressible, viscous, conducting couple stress fluid flow through a porous medium over an infinite plate that is started into motion in its own plane by an impulse. The presence of a uniform magnetic field in a direction perpendicular to the plate is assumed.
Casting the governing equations into matrix form, the authors use state space approach and Laplace transform technique to obtain the field variables. The inversion of Laplace transform is carried through the adoption of a numerical technique.
Two specific problems related to a heated plate and a plate under uniform heating are examined and the variation of temperature and velocity with respect to the couple stress parameter numerically is studied. Numerical results concerning velocity and temperature distribution are presented graphically.
The authors have attempted the problem in fluid dynamics through state space approach which is exploited with tremendous success in modern control theory but not enough in fluid dynamics.
