Thermoconvective Waves in a Viscoelastic Liquid Layer Situated in a Magnetic Field

Abstract

The effect of the presence of a magnetic field on the propagation of thermoconvective waves (TCW) in a horizontal layer of electrically conducting, viscoelastic liquid (Oldroyd’s liquid B) heated from below is investigated on the assumption that both layer surfaces are free. The presence of a magnetic field decreases (increases) the logarithmic decrement (the damping length) of TCW for supercritical Rayleigh numbers and increases the frequency above which the thermal waves propagate almost undamped, although the qualitative properties of TCW are hardly altered by the presence of a magnetic field.