Double diffusive porous penetrative convection-thawing subsea permafrost (Q1117805)

A model is proposed for the study of convective motions of temperature and salt fields in a porous medium, where the temperatures remain below \(4\circ C\). General a priori stability and continuous dependence results are proved, the key factor being an application of the parabolic maximum principle. The model is then specialized to the onset of convection in a plane layer. Critical Rayleigh numbers are determined by using linear stability theory, nonlinear (conditional) energy stability theory and a weighted energy method which gives unconditional results. A feature of the work is that the weighted energy results are very close to the linear ones and thus define a narrow band of Rayleigh numbers where possible subcritical instabilities may arise.