| Abstract | Fluid flow in micron scale channels is characterized by micro-rotation or gyration, which is insignificant in macro-channels. Consequently, the Navier-Stokes equations are inadequate to describe fluid flow in micro-channels. Field equations of the micro-polar fluid theory, which augment and modify the Navier-Stokes equations by including rigid rotations of small volume elements about their centers, are sufficiently accurate to describe such flow in most of the applications. We study the performance of various methods to solve the micro-polar field equations in rectangular channels. The methods studied are: the variational method, the finite difference scheme and the fmite element method. Relative advantages and disadvantages of the methods are discussed. These procedures are used to study the behavior of micropolar fluid flow in rectangular channels. |
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