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Convective instability of a plane horizontal layer of weakly conducting fluid in alternating and modulated electric fields

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Abstract

The electrothermoconvective instability of a plane horizontal layer of weakly conducting fluid in a modulated vertical electric field is investigated. The analysis is based on the electrohydrodynamic approximation. The stability threshold in the linear approximation is found using Floquet’s theory. The effect of periodic modulation on the fluid behavior is studied in both the presence and the absence of the constant component of the electric field. It is shown that modulation can stabilize the unstable ground state or destabilize fluid equilibrium, depending on the amplitude and frequency. In addition to a synchronous or subharmonic response to an external forcing, the instability may be associated with two-frequency (quasiperiodic) perturbations. The cases of weightlessness and a transversely stratified fluid in a static gravity field are considered.

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Madrid, Perm’. Translated from Izvestiya Rossiiskoi Akademii Nauk, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 3, pp. 31–38, May–June, 2000.

The investigations whose results are presented in this paper were supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (project No. 98-01-00507).

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Velarde, M.G., Smorodin, B.L. Convective instability of a plane horizontal layer of weakly conducting fluid in alternating and modulated electric fields. Fluid Dyn 35, 339–345 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02697746

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02697746

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