Electronic edition ISSN 1574-0579

Axisymmetric magnetothermal plumes

Donald D. Gray

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering West Virginia University Morgantown, West Virginia 26506-6103, USA

Abstract
For small temperature variations, the Boussinesq approximation holds, and the magnetic Kelvin force takes the form of a spatially variable effective gravity that gives rise to a magnetothermal buoyancy. Under the boundary layer approximation, closed form and numerical similarity solutions for steady, laminar, axisymmetric plumes driven by the interaction of a point heat source and a nonuniform magnetic field are obtained and discussed. Tables 2, Figs 3, Refs 13.