On the Onset of Electrohydrodynamic Instability of Rivlin-Ericksen Viscoelastic Dielectric Fluid Layer

In this paper we investigate the effect of AC electric field on the onset of instability of an elastico-viscous Rivlin-Ericksen dielectric fluid layer stimulated by the dielectrophoretic force due to the variation of dielectric constant with temperature. By applying linear stability theory and normal mode analysis method, we derive the dispersion relation describing the influence of viscelasticity and AC electric field. For the case of stationary convection, it is observed that Rivlin-Ericksen fluid behaves like an ordinary Newtonian fluid whereas AC electric field hastens the stationary convection. The present results are in good agreement with the earlier published results.