Effects of a magnetic field on the onset of convection in a porous medium

The stability of a conducting fluid saturating a porous medium, in the presence of a uniform magnetic field, is investigated using the Brinkman model. In the first part of the paper constant-flux thermal boundary conditions are considered for which the onset of convection is known to correspond to a vanishingly small wave number. The external magnetic field is assumed to be aligned with gravity. Closed form solutions are obtained, based on a parallel flow assumption, for a porous layer with either rigid-rigid, rigid-free or free-free boundaries. In the second part of the paper, the linear stability of a porous layer, heated isothermally from below, is investigated using the normal mode technique. The external magnetic field is applied either vertically or horizontally. Solutions are obtained for the case of a porous layer with free boundaries. Results for a pure viscous fluid and a Darcy (densely packed) porous medium emerge from the present analysis as limiting cases.