Author(s)

Thadathil Varghese Joseph, Sree Ramaiah Manjunath, Subbarama Pranesh

Department of Mathematics, BNMIT, Bangalore, India.
Department of Mathematics, Christ University, Bangalore, India.

The effects of electric field and non-uniform basic temperature gradient on the onset of Rayleigh-Bénard-Marangoni convection in a micropolar fluid are studied using the Galerkin technique. The eigenvalues are obtained for an upper free/adiabatic and lower rigid/isothermal boundaries. The microrotation is assumed to vanish at the boundaries. A linear stability analysis is performed. The influence of various micropolar fluid parameters and electric Rayleigh number on the onset of convection has been analysed. Six different non-uniform temperature profiles are considered and their comparative influence on onset is discussed.

Rayleigh-Bénard-Marangoni; Non-Uniform Temperature Gradient; Electric Field; Micropolar Fluid; Galerkin Technique

T. Joseph, S. Manjunath and S. Pranesh, "Effect of Non-Uniform Basic Temperature Gradient on the Onset of Rayleigh-Bénard-Marangoni Electro-Convectionin a Micropolar Fluid," Applied Mathematics, Vol. 4 No. 8, 2013, pp. 1180-1188. doi: 10.4236/am.2013.48158.