This article presents an analytical and experimental study of magnetohydrodynamic Rayleigh–Bénard convection in a large aspect ratio, 20[ratio ]10[ratio ]1, rectangular box. The test fluid is a eutectic sodium potassium Na22K78 alloy with a small Prandtl number of Pr≈0:02. The experimental setup covers Rayleigh numbers in the range 103< Ra<8×104 and Chandrasekhar numbers 0[les ]Q[les ]1.44×106 or Hartmann numbers 0[les ]M[les ]1200, respectively.

When a horizontal magnetic field is imposed on a heated liquid metal layer, the electromagnetic forces give rise to a transition of the three-dimensional convective roll pattern into a quasi-two-dimensional flow pattern in such a way that convective rolls become more and more aligned with the magnetic field. A linear stability analysis based on two-dimensional model equations shows that the critical Rayleigh number for the onset of convection of quasi-two-dimensional flow is shifted to significantly higher values due to Hartmann braking at walls perpendicular to the magnetic field. This finding is experimentally confirmed by measured Nusselt numbers. Moreover, the experiments show that the convective heat transport at supercritical conditions is clearly diminished. Adjacent to the onset of convection there is a significant region of stationary convection with significant convective heat transfer before the flow proceeds to time-dependent convection. However, in spite of the Joule dissipation effect there is a certain range of magnetic field intensities where an enhanced heat transfer is observed. Estimates of the local isotropy properties of the flow by a four-element temperature probe demonstrate that the increase in convective heat transport is accompanied by the formation of strong non-isotropic time-dependent flow in the form of large-scale convective rolls aligned with the magnetic field which exhibit a simpler temporal structure compared to ordinary hydrodynamic flow and which are very effective for the convective heat transport.