Cilia-assisted flow of electrically conducting micropolar fluid in a heated curved channel under Soret and Dufour effects

Cilia flow plays a crucial role in biological systems such as the movement of mucus in the respiratory tract, circulation of cerebrospinal fluid in the brain, and propulsion of sperm cells. Understanding the cilia flow of viscous fluids is essential for elucidating the biomechanics of these processes and their implications for health and disease. Motivated by such numerous biomedical applications, this article aims to exhibit the influence of heat and mass transfer on the ciliary flow of an electrical conducting micropolar fluid in a curved channel. The energy and concentration equations are modulated with viscous dissipation, Soret, and Dufour effects. The constitutive equations are simplified by the lubrication approximation and then solved numerically using the implicit finite difference method (FDM). Results for velocity, pumping phenomenon, concentration, thermal field, rate of heat transfer, streamlines, skin friction coefficient, Nusselt number, and Sherwood number are analyzed subject to pertinent parameters. The study reveals that velocity is enhanced via both the micropolar parameter and curvature parameter. Temperature enhances for larger values of Dufour and Brickman numbers. Furthermore, the radial magnetic field plays a resistive role in the trapped bolus. The findings presented in this study should prove beneficial for researchers in the domains of medicine, engineering, science, and fluid mechanics. Further, it is found that the micropolar fluid model is more suitable for biofluids like blood.