Stability of a Conducting Fluid Flowing Down an Inclined Plane in a Magnetic Field

摘要

A stability analysis is made for the laminar flow of a layer of a viscous and electrically conducting fluid down an inclined plane in a transverse magnetic field. It is found that the effect of the magnetic field, revealed through the Hartmann number, is to stabilize the flow. Audsimpler and physically clearer approximate treatment of the same problem based on the principle of local balance is also given. The results agree quite satisfactorily with the exact analysis.