Thermomagnetic convection in a layer of ferrofluid placed in a uniform oblique external magnetic field

Abstract

AbstractLinear stability of magnetoconvection of a ferromagnetic fluid contained between two infinite differentially heated non-magnetic plates in the presence of an oblique uniform external magnetic field is studied in zero gravity conditions. The thermomagnetic convection that arises is caused by the spatial variation of magnetisation occurring due to its dependence on the temperature. The critical values of the governing parameters at which the transition between motionless and convective states is observed are determined for various field inclination angles and for fluid magnetic parameters that are consistently chosen from a realistic experimental range. It is shown that, similar to natural paramagnetic fluids, the most prominent convection patterns align with the in-layer component of the applied magnetic field but in contrast to such paramagnetic fluids the instability patterns detected in ferrofluids can be oscillatory. It is also found that, contrary to paramagnetic fluids, the stability characteristics of magnetoconvection in ferrofluids depend on the magnitude of the applied field which becomes an additional parameter of the problem. This is shown to be due to the nonlinearity of the magnetic field distribution within the ferrofluid.