Stability analysis of Rayleigh--Bénard convection in a porous medium (Q638641)

The authors show that the Rayleigh-Bénard equations for flow in a porous medium satisfy the principle of exchange of stabilities under the assumption that the viscosity is dependent on temperature and pressure and is analytic in these variables. The authors also show that the static conduction solution is linearly stable if and only if the Rayleigh number is less than or equal to a critical Rayleigh number. Finally, they show that a measure of the thermal energy of the fluid decays exponentially, which in turn implies that the \(L^2\) norms of the perturbed temperature and velocity also decay exponentially. Linearized stability of the static conduction solution and its nonlinear stability are studied. Finally, the authors perform numerical calculations of the critical Rayleigh number.