Transition from laminar convection to thermal turbulence in a rotating fluid layer

Abstract

The convective flow in an infinite horizontal fluid layer rotating rigidly about a normal axis is investigated for the special case of infinite Prandtl number and free boundary conditions. For slightly supercritical Rayleigh numbers the solutions of the non-linear steady-state equations are derived approximately by an amplitude expansion. A stability calculation shows that no stable steady-state convective flow exists if the Taylor number exceeds the critical value 2285.