Porous medium convection in a chemically reacting ferrofluid with lower boundary subjected to constant heat flux

Abstract

Abstract The effect of exothermic chemical reaction of zero-order on Bénard-Darcy ferroconvection is investigated using the technique of small perturbation. The eigenvalues associated with an adiabatic lower wall are determined by employing the Galerkin method. The Darcy-Rayleigh number is computed in terms of the parameters pertaining to chemical reaction and ferromagnetic fluid. It is established that, when chemical reaction escalates, there is a considerable shift from linearity and occurrence of asymmetry in the basic temperature profiles. It is ascertained that the threshold of Bénard-Darcy ferroconvection is augmented through the stresses of both mechanisms due to chemical reaction and magnetization, and the ferroconvective instability due to nonlinearity of magnetization is rather inconsequential when chemical reaction is present. It is also shown that the destabilizing feature of magnetic forces resulting from the fluid magnetization is less pronounced when chemical reaction is present.