The instability characteristics of a dielectric fluid layer heated from below under the influence of a uniform vertical alternating current (AC) electric field is analyzed for different types of electric potential (constant electric potential/ electric current), velocity (rigid/free) and temperature boundary conditions (constant temperature/heat flux or a mixed condition at the upper boundary). The resulting eigenvalue problem is solved numerically using the shooting method for various boundary conditions and the solution is also found in a simple closed form when the perturbation heat flux is zero at the boundaries. The possibility of a more precise control of electrothermal convection (ETC) through various boundary conditions is emphasized. The effect of increasing AC electric Rayleigh number is to hasten while that of Biot number is to delay the onset of ETC. The system is more stable for rigid-rigid boundaries when compared to rigid-free and least stable for free-free boundaries. The change of electric potential boundary condition at the upper boundary from constant electric potential to constant electric current is found to instill more stability on the system. Besides, increase in the AC electric Rayleigh number and the Biot number is to reduce the size of convection cells.

In this investigation, the surface characteristics of Nickel based superalloy Inconel-625 were evaluated by the electrical discharge machining with used cooking oil-based biodiesel as a dielectric. Nickel-based superalloys find wide applicability in numerous industries due to their specific properties. The Cu electrodes of various densities prepared by atomic diffusion additive manufacturing process were used for machining. A comparison of the performance was made based on average surface roughness. The Design-expert software was used for experimental design and parametric analysis. The outcome demonstrated that bio-dielectric fluid produced improved surface characteristics. The surface roughness was observed to reduce. The surface micrograph obtained from scanning electron microscopy also confirms a better surface finish of bio-dielectric fluid over EDM oil. The surface roughness was shown to be most significantly influenced by the discharge current, with the other parameters having little or no effect. The results showed that for bio-dielectric, the lowest Ra was 0.643 µm, and for EDM oil, the highest value of 0.844 µm. The slightest difference in roughness value for two dielectric fluids was 0.013 µm, and the highest difference was 0.115 µm.