Study on Electrohydrodynamic Rayleigh-Taylor Instability with Heat and Mass Transfer

Abstract

The linear analysis of Rayleigh-Taylor instability of the interface between two viscous and dielectric fluids in the presence of a tangential electric field has been carried out when there is heat and mass transfer across the interface. In our earlier work, the viscous potential flow analysis of Rayleigh-Taylor instability in presence of tangential electric field was studied. Here, we use another irrotational theory in which the discontinuities in the irrotational tangential velocity and shear stress are eliminated in the global energy balance. Stability criterion is given by critical value of applied electric field as well as critical wave number. Various graphs have been drawn to show the effect of various physical parameters such as electric field, heat transfer coefficient, and vapour fraction on the stability of the system. It has been observed that heat transfer and electric field both have stabilizing effect on the stability of the system.