Implication of cross-diffusion on the stability of double diffusive convection in an imposed magnetic field

Abstract

The effects of cross-diffusion on linear and weak nonlinear stability of double diffusive convection in an electrically conducting horizontal fluid layer with an imposed vertical magnetic field are investigated. The criterion for the onset of stationary and oscillatory convection is obtained analytically by performing the linear instability analysis. Several noteworthy departures from those of doubly diffusive fluid systems are unveiled under certain parametric conditions. It is shown that (i) disconnected closed convex oscillatory neutral curve separated from the stationary neutral curve exists requiring three critical thermal Rayleigh numbers to completely specify the linear instability criteria instead of a usual single critical value, (ii) an electrically conducting fluid layer in the presence of magnetic field can be destabilized by stable solute concentration gradient, and (iii) a doubly diffusive conducting fluid layer can be destabilized in the presence of magnetic field. It is demonstrated that small variations in the off-diagonal elements enforce discrepancies in the instability criteria. A weak nonlinear stationary stability analysis has been performed using a perturbation method and a cubic Landau equation is derived and the stability of bifurcating equilibrium solution is discussed. It is found that subcritical bifurcation occurs depending on the choices of governing parameters.