Premium
Toward a Description of Convection with Temperature‐and‐Pressure‐Dependent Viscosity
Author(s) -
Fowler A. C.
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
studies in applied mathematics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.164
H-Index - 46
eISSN - 1467-9590
pISSN - 0022-2526
DOI - 10.1002/sapm1993882113
Subject(s) - convection , mantle convection , viscosity , thermodynamics , mantle (geology) , rayleigh number , geology , mechanics , physics , geophysics , natural convection , paleontology , tectonics , subduction
In seeking a description of convection in the Earth's mantle, one is led to the study of convection in a fluid at large Rayleigh number, and with large activation energy and volume for viscosity. This paper presents an initial attempt to understand the asymptotic behavior in the combined triple attempt to understand the asymptotic behavior in the combined triple asymptotic limit where these parameters are all large. The model is a simplified set of mean field equations. We show that it mimics successfully both constant and temperature‐dependent viscosity. We then show that temperature‐and‐pressure‐dependent viscosity gives an internal isoviscous structure. There are tempting inferences that might be suggested for the convective style in the earth's mantle.