Marangoni convection in a dielectric fluid layer with an AC electric field and nonuniform volumetric heat source due to incident radiation

Abstract The role of a uniform AC electric field and a nonuniform volumetric heat source arising due to an external incident radiation on the onset of Marangoni convection in a horizontal layer of an incompressible dielectric fluid is investigated. The bottom rigid surface is fixed at a constant temperature while the top free surface at which the surface tension acts is considered to be nondeformable and a Robin boundary condition on the perturbation temperature is invoked. The nonuniform internal heating within the fluid layer alters the conduction temperature profile from linear to nonlinear in the vertical coordinate. The linear stability of the quiescent basic solution is studied with respect to normal mode disturbances. The resulting stability eigenvalue problem with variable coefficient is solved numerically using the Galerkin method. The impact of governing parameters on the instability of the system is discussed thoroughly. The forces causing instability reinforce together and are found to be tightly coupled. It is observed that the strength of nonuniform heat source and the electric Rayleigh number is to hasten, while an increase in the Biot number is to delay the onset of Marangoni electroconvection. Finally, the results obtained under the limiting cases are shown to be in good agreement with those published earlier.