On the Boussinesq equations with non-monotone temperature profiles

Abstract

In this article we consider the asymptotic stability of the two-dimensional Boussinesq equations with partial dissipation near a combination of Couette flow and temperature profiles $T(y)$. As a first main result we show that if $T'$ is of size at most $\nu^{1/3}$ in a suitable norm, then the linearized Boussinesq equations with only vertical dissipation of the velocity but not of the temperature are stable. Thus, mixing enhanced dissipation can suppress Rayleigh-B\'enard instability in this linearized case. We further show that these results extend to the (forced) nonlinear equations with vertical dissipation in both temperature and velocity.