Electrohydrodynamic instability in a horizontal viscoelastic fluid layer in the presence of internal heat generation

Linear stability theory is applied to examine the effect of a vertical ac electric field on the stability of natural convection, which occurs in a dielectric viscoelastic fluid (Walters' liquid B' ) between two parallel horizontal plates with internal heat generation. The power-series method is used to obtain the eigenvalue equation, which is then solved numerically. Critical heat Rayleigh numbers and the critical wave number for the onset of instability are presented graphically as functions of the electric Rayleigh number for various values of the Prandtl number. PACS No.: 47.15Fe