Instability of a viscous, incompressible and electrically conducting fluid cylinder due to axial current

Abstract

The stability of an incompressible, viscous and electrically conducting fluid cylinder in the presence of an axial current is investigated. The effect of surface tension is taken into account while the effect of gravity is neglected. It is shown that the inclusion of viscous effects reduces the growth rate of instabilities. In the case of mercury the amount of reduction in the growth rates is negligibly small.