Thermal relaxation effect on magnetohydrodynamic instability in a rotating micropolar fluid layer heated from below

Summary.

The effect of a vertical magnetic field on the onset of convective instability in a conducting micropolar fluid (Oldroyd fluid) layer heated from below confined between two horizontal planes under the simultaneous action of the rotation of the system and a vertical temperature gradient is considered. Linear stability theory and normal mode analysis are used to derive an eigenvalue system of order twelve, and an exact eigenvalue equation for natural instability is obtained. Under somewhat artificial boundary conditions, this equation can be solved exactly to yield the required eigenvalue relationship from which various critical values are determined in detail. The effects of magnetic field, the relaxation time and micropolar parameters on the critical Rayleigh number and critical wave number are discussed and presented graphically. The analysis presented in this paper is more general than any previous investigation.