Influence of parametric modulation on the onset of thermomagnetic convection

Magnetic fluids – so called ferrofluids – are suspensions of nano-scaled particles in an appropriate carrier liquid. The flow properties of these fluids can be influenced by applying an external magnetic field. It is possible to introduce a magnetic force in a horizontal ferrofluid layer which is able to drive a convective flow. The magnetic force arises in the presence of an external magnetic field if a temperature gradient exists in the fluid gap. The behaviour of the onset of convection depends on the strength of the external magnetic field and on the temperature gradient. In this paper the onset of convection under the influence of time-modulated magnetic field has been investigated. The experimental results presented here show a shift in the onset of convection depending on the frequency of the external magnetic field. This behaviour confirms in principle the theoretical predictions which are also presented here. (© 2009 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Thermomagnetic convection in magnetic fluids influenced by a time-modulated magnetic field

Material– and flow properties of magnetic fluids can be influenced by applying an external magnetic field. In this work we will particularly consider the onset of convection in magnetic fluids which is influenced by a magnetic force. In a horizontal magnetic fluid layer the force arises if a temperature gradient and an external magnetic field is applied. The behaviour of the onset of convection is investigated for a static and a time–modulated magnetic field. For the case of a static magnetic field the onset of convection depends on the strength of the field and for a time–modulated magnetic field an additional dependence on the frequency of magnetic field variation is found. The experimental results presented here confirm in principle the theoretical predictions about the influence of static and time–modulated magnetic forces on the onset of convection. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Rayleigh-Benard convection in a dielectric liquid: time-periodic body force

We discuss the thermal instability in a layer of dielectric fluid when the boundaries of the layer are subjected to small amplitude Time-periodic body force (TBF). Perturbation solution in powers of the amplitude of the applied temperature field is obtained using the Venezian method (1969) [1]. A linear stability analysis is performed. The results of the study, indicate that TBF or g-jitter leads to delayed convection Also for large frequencies the effect of TBF disappears.The problem has relevance in many dielectric fluid applications wherein regulation of thermal convection is called for. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Resonant Penetrative Convection with an Internal Heat Source/Sink

We develop a detailed linear instability and nonlinear stability analysis for the situation of convection in a horizontal plane layer of fluid when there is a heat sink/source which is linear in the vertical coordinate which is in the opposite direction to gravity. This can give rise to a scenario where the layer effectively splits into three sublayers. In the lowest one the fluid has a tendency to be convectively unstable while in the intermediate layer it will be gravitationally stable. In the top layer there is again the possibility for the layer to be unstable. This results in a problem where convection may initiate in either the lowest layer, the upmost layer, or perhaps in both sublayers simultaneously. In the last case there is the possibility of resonance between the upmost and lowest layers. In all cases penetrative convection may occur where convective movement in one layer induces motion in an adjacent sublayer. In certain cases the critical Rayleigh number for thermal convection may display a very rapid increase which is much greater than normal. Such behaviour may have application in energy research such as in thermal insulation.     

Magnetic Suppression of Thermocapillary Convection in a Cylindrical Specimen

Convective flows may adversely affect the homogeneity of semiconductor crystals grown by the floating-zone method. The intensity of the convective flow can be reduced by an external magnetic field. The study simulates the convective flow in a cylindrical specimen. The mathematical model consists of the system of quasihydrodynamic (QHD) equations for a quasineutral electrically conducting fluid in an external electromagnetic field. The numerical results show how the convective flow velocities and configurations depend on the magnetic field strength.     

Numerical study of forced and free convective boundary layer flow of a magnetic fluid over a flat plate under the action of a localized magnetic field

The two-dimensional, steady, laminar, forced and free convective boundary layer flow of a magnetic fluid over a semi-infinite vertical plate, under the action of a localized magnetic field, is numerically studied. The magnetic fluid is considered to be water-based with temperature dependent viscosity and thermal conductivity. The study of the boundary layer is separated into two cases. In case I the boundary layer is studied near the leading edge, where it is dominated by the large viscous forces, whereas in case II the boundary layer is studied far from the leading edge of the plate where the effects of buoyancy forces increase. The numerical solution, for these two different cases, is obtained by an efficient numerical technique based on the common finite difference method. Numerical calculations are carried out for the value of Prandl number Pr =  49.832 (water-based magnetic fluid) and for different values of the dimensionless parameters entering into the problem and especially for the magnetic parameter Mn, the viscosity/temperature parameter Θ _r and the thermal/conductivity parameter S*. The analysis of the obtained results show that the flow field is influenced by the application of the magnetic field as well as by the variation of the viscosity and the thermal conductivity of the fluid with temperature. It is hoped that they could be interesting for engineering applications.     

Numerical study of forced and free convective boundary layer flow of a magnetic fluid over a flat plate under the action of a localized magnetic field

The two-dimensional, steady, laminar, forced and free convective boundary layer flow of a magnetic fluid over a semi-infinite vertical plate, under the action of a localized magnetic field, is numerically studied. The magnetic fluid is considered to be water-based with temperature dependent viscosity and thermal conductivity. The study of the boundary layer is separated into two cases. In case I the boundary layer is studied near the leading edge, where it is dominated by the large viscous forces, whereas in case II the boundary layer is studied far from the leading edge of the plate where the effects of buoyancy forces increase. The numerical solution, for these two different cases, is obtained by an efficient numerical technique based on the common finite difference method. Numerical calculations are carried out for the value of Prandl number Pr =  49.832 (water-based magnetic fluid) and for different values of the dimensionless parameters entering into the problem and especially for the magnetic parameter Mn, the viscosity/temperature parameter Θ _r and the thermal/conductivity parameter S*. The analysis of the obtained results show that the flow field is influenced by the application of the magnetic field as well as by the variation of the viscosity and the thermal conductivity of the fluid with temperature. It is hoped that they could be interesting for engineering applications.     

Perturbation analysis of unsteady magnetohydrodynamic convective heat and mass transfer in a boundary layer slip flow past a vertical permeable plate with thermal radiation and chemical reaction

An analytical study for the problem of unsteady mixed convection with thermal radiation and first-order chemical reaction on magnetohydrodynamics boundary layer flow of viscous, electrically conducting fluid past a vertical permeable plate has been presented. Slip boundary condition is applied at the porous interface. The classical model is used for studying the effect of radiation for optically thin media. The non-linear coupled partial differential equations are solved by perturbation technique. The results obtained show that the velocity, temperature and concentration fields are appreciably influenced by the presence of chemical reaction, thermal stratification and magnetic field. It is observed that the effect of thermal radiation and magnetic field decreases the velocity, temperature and concentration profiles in the boundary layer. Also, the effects of the various parameters on the skin-friction coefficient and the rate of heat transfer at the surface are discussed.     

Nonaxisymmetric Free Convection Flow over a Rotating Disk in a Viscoelastic fluid with Magnetic Field

The non axisymmetric motion produced by a buoyancy-induced secondary flow of a viscoelastic fluid over an infinite rotating disk in a verticalplane with a magnetic field applied normal to the disk has been studied.The governing Navier Stokes equations and the energy equation admit a self similar solution. The system of ordinary differential equations has been solved numerically using Runge-Kutta Gill subroutine.The turning moment for the viscoelastic fluid is found to be less than that of the Newtonian fluid but the turning moment is increased due to the magnetic parameter. The resultant force due to the buoyancy-induced secondary flow increases with the magnetic parameter but reduces as the viscoelastic parameter increases. The quantity of fluid, which is pumped outwards due to the centrifuging action of the disk, for the viscoelastic fluid is more than that of the Newtonian fluid. The buoyancy-induced secondary flow boundary layer is much thicker than the primary boundary layer thickness. The thermal boundary layer due to the primary flow increases with the magnetic parameter decreases as the viscoelastic parameter increases. The heat transfer increases with the viscoelastic parameter but decreases as the magnetic parameter increases. The effect of the viscoelastic parameter is more pronounced on the secondary flow than on the primary flow.     

Numerical investigation of transient heat transfer to hydromagnetic channel flow with radiative heat and convective cooling

This present study consists of a numerical investigation of transient heat transfer in channel flow of an electrically conducting variable viscosity Boussinesq fluid in the presence of a magnetic field and thermal radiation. The temperature dependent nature of viscosity is assumed to follow an exponentially model and the system exchanges heat with the ambient following Newton’s law of cooling. The governing nonlinear equations of momentum and energy transport are solved numerically using a semi-implicit finite difference method. Solutions are presented in graphical form and given in terms of fluid velocity, fluid temperature, skin friction and heat transfer rate for various parametric values. Our results reveal that combined effect of thermal radiation, magnetic field, viscosity variation and convective cooling have significant impact in controlling the rate of heat transfer in the boundary layer region.     

Unsteady convective boundary layer flow of a viscous fluid at a vertical surface with variable fluid properties

In this paper we present numerical solutions to the unsteady convective boundary layer flow of a viscous fluid at a vertical stretching surface with variable transport properties and thermal radiation. Both assisting and opposing buoyant flow situations are considered. Using a similarity transformation, the governing time-dependent partial differential equations are first transformed into coupled, non-linear ordinary differential equations with variable coefficients. Numerical solutions to these equations subject to appropriate boundary conditions are obtained by a second order finite difference scheme known as the Keller-Box method. The numerical results thus obtained are analyzed for the effects of the pertinent parameters namely, the unsteady parameter, the free convection parameter, the suction/injection parameter, the Prandtl number, the thermal conductivity parameter and the thermal radiation parameter on the flow and heat transfer characteristics. It is worth mentioning that the momentum and thermal boundary layer thicknesses decrease with an increase in the unsteady parameter.     

Double diffusive convection in porous media under the action of a magnetic field

The onset of thermal convection in an electrically conducting fluid saturating a porous medium, uniformly heated from below, salted by one chemical and embedded in an external transverse magnetic field is analyzed. The critical Rayleigh thermal numbers at which steady and Hopf convection can occur, are determined. Sufficient conditions guaranteeing the effective onset of convection via steady or oscillatory state are provided.

     

Development of a high order discretization scheme for solving fully nonlinear magnetohydrodynamic equations

We have developed fully fourth order accurate compact finite difference discretization scheme for the Navier-Stokes equations coupled with Maxwell''s equations. The implementation is done in cylindrical polar geometry. Due to the full-MHD modeling of physical flow, the modeled equations are fully nonlinear coupled hydrodynamic equations which are again coupled with Maxwells equations. In our computations, we have accounted for the induced magnetic field in the flow of an electrically conducting fluid in an external magnetic field. The code is tested against available experimental and theoretical data where applicable. It is observed that a smaller grid of $64 \times 64$ is sufficient for weakly nonlinear problems and higher grids up to $512 \times 512$ are needed as the degree of nonlinearities grow in the modeled equation. In the absence of magnetic field, a discontinuity of total drag coefficient and separation length is noted for $Re=73$ which is in agreement with literature. When the magnetic Reynolds number $Rm<1$ separation length decreases linearly with strength of magnetic field on a log-log scale whereas if $Rm>1$, it decreases nonlinearly, at a much faster rate. Thermal boundary layer thickness decreases as the strength of magnetic field increases and it forces the thermal convection to take place in a laminar structure as observed from thermal contour lines. Finally, using divided differences, we establish that the accuracy of the proposed numerical scheme is in fact fourth order.     

Buoyancy and chemical reaction effects on MHD mixed convection heat and mass transfer in a porous medium with thermal radiation and Ohmic heating

The combined effect of mixed convection with thermal radiation and chemical reaction on MHD flow of viscous and electrically conducting fluid past a vertical permeable surface embedded in a porous medium is analyzed. The heat equation includes the terms involving the radiative heat flux, Ohmic dissipation, viscous dissipation and the internal absorption whereas the mass transfer equation includes the effects of chemically reactive species of first-order. The non-linear coupled differential equations are solved analytically by perturbation technique. The results obtained show that the velocity, temperature and concentration fields are appreciably influenced by the presence of chemical reaction, thermal stratification and magnetic field. It is observed that the effect of thermal radiation and magnetic field is to decrease the velocity, temperature and concentration profiles in the boundary layer. There is also considerable effect of magnetic field and chemical reaction on skin-friction coefficient and Nusselt number.     

Effects of slip on steady Bödewadt flow and heat transfer of an electrically conducting non-Newtonian fluid

The steady flow and heat transfer arising due to the rotation of a non-Newtonian fluid at a larger distance from a stationary disk is extended to the case where the disk surface admits partial slip. The constitutive equation of the non-Newtonian fluid is modeled by that for a Reiner–Rivlin fluid. The fluid is subjected to an external uniform magnetic field perpendicular to the plane of the disk. The momentum equation gives rise to a highly nonlinear boundary value problem. Numerical solution of the governing nonlinear equations are obtained over the entire range of the physical parameters. The effects of slip, non-Newtonian fluid characteristics and the magnetic interaction parameter on the momentum boundary layer and thermal boundary layer are discussed in detail and shown graphically. It is observed that slip has prominent effects on the velocity and temperature fields.     

Effect of dust particles on a layer of micropolar ferromagnetic fluid heated from below saturating a porous medium

The problem of the effect of dust particles on the thermal convection in micropolar ferromagnetic fluid saturating a porous medium subject to a transverse uniform magnetic field has been investigated theoretically. Linear stability analysis and normal mode analysis methods are used to find an exact solution for a flat micropolar ferromagnetic fluid layer contained between two free boundaries. In case of stationary convection, the effect of various parameters like medium permeability, dust particles, non-buoyancy magnetization, coupling parameter, spin-diffusion parameter and micropolar heat conduction parameter are analyzed. For sufficiently large values of magnetic parameter M₁, the critical magnetic thermal Rayleigh number for the onset of instability is determined numerically and results are depicted graphically. It is also observed that the critical magnetic thermal Rayleigh number is reduced solely because the heat capacity of clean fluid is supplemented by that of the dust particles. The principle of exchange of stabilities is found to hold true for the micropolar ferromagnetic fluid saturating a porous medium heated from below in the absence of micropolar viscous effect, microinertia and dust particles.     

External force-induced focus pattern of a flexible filament in a viscous fluid

In order to study the mechanism of wall attraction of micro-swimmers, this paper presents a numerical study on the external force-induced focus of a flexible filament in a quiescent viscous fluid. In the numerical model, the fluid is solved by the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) and the moving filament is modeled with the immersed boundary (IB). The filament is parallel and adjacent to a near-wall initially. A periodic driving force is applied on it to induce a vibration motion which could lead to the wall attraction phenomenon of the vibrating filament. Furthermore, by adjusting the mean value of the periodic driving force, we can get a stable vibrating mode of the filament, which is called as focus pattern. The pattern is a special state of the wall attraction, which provides a convenient way to investigate the law of hydrodynamic balance. Simulations are conducted by varying the following parameters, including the boundary setting of the flow field, the magnitude, period and waveform of the external driving force, the bending modulus of the filament and the fluid viscosity. The laws of the focus pattern are discussed in detail. The results indicate that all the above parameters can affect the focus position remarkably. By analyzing the outputs of each item of the Navier–Stokes momentum conservation equation, we found that the focus is mainly caused by the balance of the joint force on the filament and the pressure effect from the flow. This finding may provide a novel way to uncover the hydrodynamic mechanism for wall attraction of waving propulsion.     

On the stability of mixed convective motions in a vertical layer with wave-like boundaries

The stability of the stationary and oscillatory convective motions which develop in a vertical layer with periodically curved boundaries is studied for the case of longitudinal fluid injection. The amplitude of the boundary undulations and the flow of fluid along the layer are both assumed to be small, and methods of perturbation theory are used. The characteristic properties of the incremental spectrum of the spatially periodic motions are studied and the most dangerous types of perturbations as well as the forms of the stability regions are determined.

Theoretical investigations of the effect of spatial inhomogeneity of the boundary conditions on the stability of convection were sparse, and they deal mainly with horizontal layers of fluid /1–3/. Stationary, spatially periodic motions in a vertical layer with curved boundaries were investigated in /4/ for the case of free convection (when the flow was closed), and their stability was investigated in /5/. It was established that the presence of a small but finite flow of fluid along the layer leads to an increase in the number of different modes of flow, and to the appearance of non-stationary convective motions in the region near the threshold.     

Simulation of Convective Flow of an Electrically Conducting Fluid in a Cavity

A new quasi-hydrodynamic algorithm is proposed for numerical analysis of convective flows in the presence of a homogeneous external magnetic field. The Marangoni convection problem in a square cross-section cavity is solved.