Linear and weakly nonlinear variable viscosity convection in spherical shells (Q687274)

A theoretical study of linear and weakly nonlinear thermal convection in a spherical shell is performed. The linear stability eigenvalue problem is derived and solved by a shooting method assuming isothermal, stress- free boundaries, a self-gravitating fluid, and corresponding to two heating models. The first is heating from below, and the second is a model of combined heating from below and within, such that convection is described by a self-adjoint linear stability formulation. In addition, nonlinear, hemispherical, axisymmetric convection is computed by a finite volume technique.