Stability of an infinite horizontal layer of fluid with a spatial heat source in the presence of a magnetic field

The stability of an electrically conducting infinite layer of a viscous fluid which loses heat throughout its volume at a constant rate in the presence of a magnetic field is discussed. The value of the critical Rayleigh number R is found to decrease as the rate of heat loss increases which implies that the layer becomes more unstable. It is observed that the destabilizing effect of the heat source term Q is more prominent when the strength of the magnetic field is low. The aspect ratio ‘a’ increases with increasing Q showing that the horizontal dimension of the cells decreases with increasing Q.