Flows of incompressible, electrically conducting liquids along ducts with electrically insulating or weakly conducting walls situated in a strong magnetic field are analysed. Except over a short length along the duct where the magnetic field strength and/or the duct cross-sectional area vary, the duct is assumed to be straight and the field to be uniform and aligned at right angles to the duct. Magnitudes of the field strength B0 and the mean velocity V are taken to be such that the Hartmann number M [Gt ] 1, the interaction parameter N (= M2/Re) [Gt ] 1 (Re being the Reynolds number of the flow) and the magnetic Reynolds number Rm [Lt ] 1.

For an O(1) change in the product VB0 along the duct across the non-uniform region, it is shown that:

(i) In the non-uniform region the streamlines and current flow lines follow surfaces containing the field lines satisfying $\int B^{-1}ds = {\rm constant}$, the integration being carried out along the field line within the duct; these surfaces are equipotentials and isobarics. This leads to

(ii) a tube of stagnant, but not current-free fluid at the centre of the duct parallel to the field lines around which the flow divides to bypass it. To accommodate this flow,

(iii) the usual uniform field/straight duct flow is disturbed over very large distances upstream and downstream of this region, the maximum length O(duct radius × M½) occurring in a non-conducting duct;

(iv) a large pressure drop is introduced into the pressure distribution regardless of the direction of the flow, the effect being most severe in a non-conducting duct, where the drop is O(duct radius × (uniform field/straight duct pressure gradient) × M½);

(v) in the part of the duct with the lower value of VB0 a region of reverse flow occurs near the centre of the duct and the stagnant fluid.