SURVEY OF THERMOCONVECTIVE INSTABILITIES OF CONFINED FLUIDS

More than one hundred publications of studies of thermoconvective instabilities of confined fluids inparticular configurations, starting from steady flows to unsteady ones have been reviewed. Both theoretical orexperimental methods have been discussed and meaningful results pertaining to the linear and to the non-lineartheory of stability have been presented. Linear analysis includes analysis in terms of normal modes and variational principles. Non-linear analysis involves energy methods, bifurcation theory and perturbation methods.Essential experimental contributions since the Benard study (1900) up to (1978) are compared with theoreticalinvestigations. This review covers convection in unbounded layers, convection in bounded containers in which the walls are dominant, convection in two-component fluids, turbulent convection and convection phenomena in theatmosphere. © Copyright by Walter de Gruyter & Co.