Convective and Absolute Instability in the Incompressible Boundary Layer on a Rotating Disk in the Presence of a Uniform Magnetic Field

The stability of a conducting fluid flow over a rotating disk with a uniform magnetic field applied normal to the disk, is investigated. It is assumed that the magnetic field is unaffected by the motion of the fluid. The mean flow and linear stability equations are solved for a range of magnetic field-strength parameters and the absolute/convective nature of the stability is investigated. It is found that increasing the magnetic field parameter is in general stabilizing.