Bounds on double-diffusive convection

Abstract

We consider double-diffusive convection between two parallel plates and compute bounds on the flux of the unstably stratified species using the background method. The bound on the heat flux for Rayleigh–Bénard convection also serves as a bound on the double-diffusive problem (with the thermal Rayleigh number equal to that of the unstably stratified component). In order to incorporate a dependence of the bound on the stably stratified component, an additional constraint must be included, like that used by Joseph (Stability of Fluid Motion, 1976, Springer) to improve the energy stability analysis of this system. Our bound extends Joseph's result beyond his energy stability boundary. At large Rayleigh number, the bound is found to behave like $R_T^{1/2}$ for fixed ratio $R_S/R_T$, where $R_T$ and $R_S$ are the Rayleigh numbers of the unstably and stably stratified components, respectively.