Ferrothermohaline convection

The ferroconvective instability of two-component fluid heated from below and salted from above has been analysed. This is a familiar example of ferrofluids in which the ferric components are dissolved into organic solvants acting as carrier. Moreover, the salt is magnetic which modifies the established magnetic field. The effect of salinity has been included in magnetisation and density of the ferrofluid. A linear stability analysis has been carried out to study the onset of ferroconvection both by stationary as well as oscillatory modes. It is found that the salinity of ferrofluid enables the fluid to get destabilised more when it is salted from above. Numerical and graphical results are presented. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.