Penetrative convection induced by an exponentially temperature dependent viscosity under the action of an internal heat sink (Q2467916)

The authors investigate the penetrative convection in a horizontal fluid saturated porous layer between the plates \({\Pi_1}\), \({\Pi_2}\) kept at constant temperatures \(T_L\) and \(T_L\) with an exponentially temperature dependent viscosity, according to the Darcy-Boussinesq model. They find the motionless state (=ms) solution and the condition under which the density profile attains a maximum at an intermediate plane \({\Pi_3}\) between \({\Pi_1}\) and \({\Pi_2}\), obtain the equations governing the perturbations to ms and study the nonlinear stability of ms via the Lyapounov direct method. by using a maximum principle and an a priori estimate the condition guaranteeing the global nonlinear stability of ms in terms of a variational problem is obtained together with a numerical solution of the variational problem, obtaining the values of the critical Rayleigh number under which the penetrative convection cannot occur.