Energy Method, Stability and Nonlinear Convection

This book is a revised edition of my earlier book of the same title. The cur­ rent edition adopts the structure of the earlier version but is much changed. The introduction now contains definitions of stability. Chapters 2 to 4 ex­ plain stability and the energy method in more depth and new sections dealing with porous media are provided. Chapters 5 to 13 are revisions of those in the earlier edition. However, chapters 6 to 12 are substantially revised, brought completely up to date, and have much new material in. Throughout the book new results are provided which are not available elsewhere. Six new chapters, 14 - 19, are provided dealing with topics of current interest. These cover the topics of multi-component convection diffusion, convection in a compressible fluid, convection with temperature dependent viscosity and thermal conductivity, the subject of penetrative convection whereby part of the fluid layer can penetrate into another, nonlinear sta­ bility in the oceans, and finally in chapter 19 practical methods for solving numerically the eigenvalue problems which arise are presented. The book presents convection studies in a variety of fluid and porous media contexts. It should be accessible to a wide audience and begins at an elementary level. Many new references are provided.

This book describes the energy method, a powerful technique for deriving nonlinear stability estimates in thermal convection contexts. It includes a very readable introduction to the subject (Chapters 2-4), which begins at an elementary level and explains the energy method in great detail, and also covers the current topic of convection in porous media, introducing simple models and then showing how useful stability results can be derived. In addition to the basic explanation, many examples from diverse areas of fluid mechanics are described. The book also mentions new areas where the methods are being used, for example, mathematical biology and finance. Several of the results given are published here for the first time.

This volume is a completely revised version of the first edition published in 1992. In addition to an update of material from the first edition, six new chapters have been added, covering topics such as multi-component convection-diffusion, convection flows in a compressible fluid, models of penetrative convection, convection with temperature-dependent viscosity and thermal conductivity, and stability of ocean flows. The final chapter gives details of two very different but highly accurate and efficient methods for numerically solving eigenvalue problems that arise in hydrodynamic stability.

The new methods developed during the last eleven years and presented here will be of use to many readers in applied mathematics, engineering, physics, and other mathematical disciplines.