Hydromagnetic stability of convective flow of variable viscosity fluids generated by internal heat sources

The stability of convective motion of a variable viscosity fluid contained in a vertical layer generated by uniformly distributed internal heat sources in the presence of a transverse magnetic field is studied. The viscosity of the fluid is assumed to depend on the temperature. The undisturbed steady state motion is assumed to consist of purely vertical motion with a nonlinear temperature distribution across the layer. The equations were solved by the spectral collocation method. The results show that thermal running waves are the most unstable modes and dominate the shear modes when the viscosity decreases.