Abstract: | The onset of penetrative convection in an infinite horizontal fluid layer bounded by isothermal rigid or free nondeformable surfaces is numerically examined. It is assumed that the specific volume of the fluid depends quadratically on temperature and reaches a minimum inside the layer. The isothermally incompressible fluid convection model in which, as distinct from the Oberbeck-Boussinesq approximation, the thermal expansion is not assumed to be small is considered. Both the neutral stability curves of the conductive regime and the amplitudes of two-dimensional periodic and three-dimensional doubly-periodic convective flow are calculated. The results are compared with those previously obtained for the equations of penetrative convection in the Boussinesq approximation.Rostov-on-Don. Translated from Izvestiya Rossiiskoi Akademii Nauk, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 2, pp. 40–52, March–April, 1996. |