The onset of ferroconvection in a horizontal ferrofluid saturated porous layer heated from below and cooled from above with constant heat flux subject to MFD viscosity

Abstract

The effect of magnetic field dependent (MFD) viscosity on the onset of ferroconvection in a ferrofluid saturated horizontal porous layer is investigated theoretically. The bounding surfaces of the porous medium are considered to be either rigid-ferromagnetic or stress free with constant heat flux conditions. The resulting eigenvalue problem is solved numerically using the Galerkin technique and also analytically by regular perturbation technique. It is found that increase in porous parameter, MFD viscosity parameter and decrease in the magnetic number is to delay the onset of ferroconvection, while the nonlinearity of fluid magnetization has no influence on the stability of the system.