MHD effect on the development of thermocapillary convection in a two-layer fluid system

To understand the effects of magnetic fields on the evolution behaviours of thermocapillary convection in a two-layer fluid system under the absence of gravity, we conducted a series of unsteady three-dimensional numerical simulations of thermocapillary flows in a rectangular cavity. The results show that the convective cell merging process under x direction magnetic field is decelerated in the encapsulant, but that in the melt is accelerated; magnetic field in z direction decelerates the convective cells merging in the melt and encapsulant greatly; the effect of magnetic field in y direction on the convective cell merging is weak. The maximum vorticity magnitude of thermocapillary convection 58.3 s-super- - 1 at fully developed without magnetic field is reduced to 53.4, 54.4 and 20.7 s-super- - 1 under magnetic fields in x, y and z directions, respectively. Copyright The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org, Oxford University Press.