Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2019/iii/paper-331/4/d/solution

At first order, and . Since and , the first equation fixes . The homogeneous temperature boundary conditions and the second equation remove any horizontally uniform term, giving
At second order,
The forcing is horizontally uniform. Taking no additional critical-mode component, a solution satisfying the homogeneous boundaries is
This mean-temperature correction in weakly nonlinear Darcy convection modifies the vertical temperature gradient and provides the feedback that saturates the convection.
Figure 1.
Critical Darcy convection rolls and their temperature perturbation
. Arrows show the velocity generated by the streamfunction . Colour shows on a horizontal period of length two: warm perturbations rise and cool perturbations sink. Details.

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