Rotating Rayleigh-Bénard convection

A thermally driven fluid layer rotating about the vertical axis experiences a Coriolis force that couples vertical velocity to vertical vorticity. Its onset depends on the Rayleigh number, Prandtl number and Taylor number, as well as thermal and mechanical boundary conditions. The force does no mechanical work, but changes the linear mode balance and nonlinear convection roll competition.

Near an oscillatory onset of rotating Rayleigh-Bénard convection, opposite travelling roll waves have coupled Hopf bifurcation amplitudes. Symmetry gives the displayed cubic amplitude equations, with generally complex self-coupling and cross-coupling coefficients. Write $a_s=\mathrm{Re}{g}_s$ and $a_c=\mathrm{Re}{g}_c$. For $r>0,a_s>0$, a single travelling wave has intensity $r/a_s$ and is stable against its counterpropagating competitor when $a_c>a_s$. Equal standing-wave intensities are $r/(a_s+a_c)$; with $r>0$ and positive denominator they are stable to intensity differences when $a_s>a_c$. Phase symmetries give orbital, rather than strict phase-decay, stability. Spatial modulation, mean flows and oblique convection rolls require additional stability tests.

A saturated convection roll is not stable merely because its single-amplitude cubic coefficient is positive. Perturbations include phase sidebands, transverse bending, differently oriented convection rolls, oscillatory modes and large-scale Eulerian mean flow. Their growth rates follow from the corresponding enlarged amplitude equations or the full linearization about the convection roll. Küppers–Lortz instability and small-angle instability of rotating convection rolls are distinct orientation-dependent mechanisms.

For finite Prandtl number and stress-free boundaries, nearly parallel convection rolls can interact with a weakly damped large-scale Eulerian mean flow. The ordinary regular two-roll amplitude expansion becomes nonuniform as the angle tends to zero, so the mean-flow mode must be retained. This mechanism is not automatically the finite-angle Küppers–Lortz instability, and thresholds depend on the stated boundary and parameter regime.

For an existing convection roll of intensity $r/g_0$, the amplitude of a new orientation at relative angle $\vartheta$ grows at rate $r[1-g(\vartheta )/g_0]$. Rotation permits $g(\vartheta )\ne g(-\vartheta )$. If one oblique orientation has $g(\vartheta )<g_0$, the convection roll is unstable immediately above a supercritical stationary threshold. This is the Küppers–Lortz mechanism. Successive orientation replacements can produce time-dependent convection roll switching; a universal attractor does not follow from the two-mode calculation. The perturbing orientation requires three-dimensional disturbances even if the initial convection roll is two-dimensional.

For the free-slip plane layer, onset selects the smallest Rayleigh number across all admissible stationary and oscillatory normal modes. The first vertical mode wins because increasing vertical index raises viscous cost and reduces oscillatory admissibility. Oscillatory minimization replaces the right-hand side of the stationary wave-number equation by $P^2\mathrm{Ta}{\pi }^2/(1+P{)}^2$. For the oscillatory minimum also require positive angular frequency squared. Where both selected curves are admissible, at rapid rotation the ratio of the minimized thresholds is $R_{o,c}/R_{s,c}\sim 2P^{4/3}/(1+P{)}^{1/3}$. Equality gives $8P^4-P-1=0$, with positive root about $0.67660$; below it sufficiently rapid rotation can select oscillatory primary onset.

For stress-free impermeable fixed-temperature plates, thermal-time growth rate $s$, horizontal wavenumber $k$ and vertical index $n$, put $a=k^2+n^2{\pi }^2$ and $P=\mathrm{Pr}$. Vertical velocity, temperature and vertical vorticity amplitudes satisfy $a(s/P+a)W+\sqrt{\mathrm{Ta}}n\pi Z=R{k}^2\Theta$, $(s/P+a)Z=\sqrt{\mathrm{Ta}}n\pi W$, $(s+a)\Theta =W$. Taking their determinant givesThis is a cubic and remains valid without dividing by a potentially zero factor. Setting $s=0$ or $s=i\omega$ determines the stationary or admissible oscillatory neutral curves.

For $s=i\omega$, real-imaginary separation of the rotating-convection cubic givesThe curve is admissible only if ${\omega }^2>0$, so $P<1$ and sufficient rotation are necessary. A formal minimum with nonpositive angular frequency squared is not a Hopf bifurcation. At zero angular frequency this curve meets the stationary curve for that fixed wavenumber in a double-zero limit.

Substitution of zero growth rate into the rotating-convection cubic gives the displayed Rayleigh number. For the first vertical mode, setting $t=k^2$, $m={\pi }^2$, differentiating with respect to $t$ gives $(t+m{)}^2(2t-m)=\mathrm{Ta}m$. At rapid rotation, $k_c\sim (\mathrm{Ta}{\pi }^2/2{)}^{1/6}$ and $R_c\sim 3(\mathrm{Ta}{\pi }^2/2{)}^{2/3}$. Discrete allowed wavenumbers or different plate conditions require a different minimization.