Effects of non-uniform temperature gradient and magnetic field on the onset of convection in fluids with suspended particles under microgravity conditions

Abstract

The effects of a non-uniform temperature gradient and magnetic field on the onset of convection driven by surface tension in a horizontal layer of Boussinesq fluid with suspended particles confined between an upper free / adiabatic boundary and a lower rigid / isothermal boundary have been considered. A linear stability analysis is performed. The microrotation is

assumed to vanish at the boundaries. The Galerkin technique is used to obtain the eigenvalues. The influence of various parameters on the onset of convection has been analysed. Six different non-uniform temperature profiles are considered and their comparative influence on onset is discussed. It is observed that the electrically conducting fluid layer with suspended panicles heated from below is more stable compared to the classical electrically conducting fluid without suspended particles. The critical wave number is found to be insensitive to the changes in the parameters but sensitive to the changes in the

Chandrasekhar number. The problem has possible applications in microgravity space situations.