Kantorovich method in magnetohydrodynamic flow problems through channels (Q1060649)

The paper is concerned with the application of the Kantorovich method to the solution of the problem of steady flow of a viscous incompressible electrically conducting fluid in a straight non-conducting channel permeated by a uniform transverse magnetic field. This is essentially a variational method which reduces the problem of minimizing a double integral to that of a single integral. In particular the case of flow in a rectangular channel is discussed in detail and the numerical results based on two-term approximation give very good agreement with the exact solution due to \textit{J. A. Shercliff} [Proc. Camb. Phil. Soc. 49, 136-144 (1953; Zbl 0050.194)] for moderately large values of the magnetic parameter M. The advantage of this method is that it gives fairly accurate results with relatively less computation although for very large values of M, higher order approximations are necessary. As expected, the velocity at a point decreases with increase in M. Convergence of the method is also discussed by the authors.