Instability triggered by mixed convection in a thin fluid layer

TL;DR

This paper studies the stability of a thin fluid layer under mixed convection, revealing how the instability threshold depends on physical parameters and identifying dominant 3D oscillatory modes through analytical and numerical methods.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of convective instability in a thin fluid layer, including an analytical base state and stability criteria, advancing understanding of mixed convection phenomena.

Findings

Instability threshold decreases with aspect ratio and flux difference following a specific power law.

A dominant 3D mode with transverse standing waves is identified and characterized.

Analytical asymptotic solutions and local stability analysis explain the nature of the instabilities.

Abstract

We investigate the convective stability of a thin, infinite fluid layer with a rectangular cross-section, subject to imposed heat fluxes at the top and bottom and fixed temperature along the vertical sides. The instability threshold depends on the Prandtl number as well as the normalized flux difference ($f$) and decreases with the aspect ratio ($\epsilon$), following a $\epsilon f^{-1}$ power law. Using 3D initial value and 2D eigenvalue calculations, we identify a dominant 3D mode characterized by two transverse standing waves attached to the domain edges. We characterize the dominant mode's frequency and transverse wave number as functions of the Rayleigh number and aspect ratio. An analytical asymptotic solution for the base state in the bulk is obtained, valid over most of the domain and increasingly accurate for lower aspect ratios. A local stability analysis, based on the analytical base state, reveals oscillatory transverse instabilities consistent with the global instability characteristics. The source term for this most unstable mode appears to be interactions between vertical shear and horizontal temperature gradients.