Effects of variable gravity on stability in couple-stress fluids across various conducting boundaries

This work aims to inspect the effect of variable gravity field on the convective stability of couple stress fluid for different combinations of bounding surfaces. Both linear and nonlinear analyses are conducted to obtain eigenvalue problems. For this analysis, three different combinations of bounding surfaces have been considered. Normal mode analysis is used for linear analysis, while the energy method is used for nonlinear analysis. The numerical values of critical Rayleigh numbers are calculated using the single-term Galerkin technique. It is found that the Rayleigh numbers for the two analyses coincide, suggesting global stability. It is found that the increase in the value of couple stresses stabilize the system. The variable gravity can enhance or reduce the stability of the system depending on the direction of gravity variation which can be easily controlled by its parameter values. It is also observed that fluid confined in rigid-rigid bounding surface is more thermally stable, which is suitable for convection in couple stress fluid.