Exploration of Coriolis Force on the Linear Stability of Couple Stress Fluid Flow Induced by Double Diffusive Convection

Abstract

Abstract In this paper, the effect of Coriolis force is explored on convective instability of a doubly diffusive incompressible couple stress fluid layer with gravity acting downward. A linear stability analysis is used to obtain the conditions for the onset of stationary and oscillatory convection in the closed form. Being a multiparameter instability problem, results for some isolated cases have been presented to illustrate interesting corners of parameter space. It is found that the neutral curve for oscillatory onset forms a closed-loop which is separate from the neutral curve for stationary onset indicating the requirement of three critical thermal Rayleigh numbers to specify the linear instability criteria instead of the usual single value. Besides, the simultaneous presence of rotation and the addition of heavy solute to the bottom of the layer exhibit an intriguing possibility of destabilizing the system under certain conditions, in contrast to their stabilizing effect when they are present in isolation. The implication of couple stresses on each of the aforementioned anomalies is clearly brought out. The spatial wavelength of convective cells at the onset is also discussed.