In this study, the effect of Hall current on the criterion for the onset of MHD convection in a porous medium layer saturated by a nanofluid is investigated. The model used for nanofluid combines the effect of Brownian motion and thermophoresis, while for a porous medium Brinkman model is used. A physically more realistic boundary condition than the previous ones on the nanoparticle volume fraction is considered i.e. the nanoparticle flux is assumed to be zero rather than prescribing the nanoparticle volume fraction on the boundaries. Using linear stability theory, the exact analytical expression for critical Rayleigh Darcy number is obtained in terms of various non-dimensional parameters. Results indicate that the magnetic field, Hall current, porous medium and nanoparticles significantly influence the stability characteristics of the system.
The increase in the Hall current parameter, the Lewis number, the modified diffusivity ratio and the concentration Rayleigh Darcy number is to hasten the onset of convection while the magnetic Darcy number, the porosity parameter and the Darcy number has stabilized on the onset of convection.