Bounds on convective heat transport in a rotating porous layer

Using the background field variational method, bounds on convective heat transport in a rotating porous layer heated from below are derived from the primitive equations. The enhancement of heat transport beyond the minimal conduction value (the Nusselt number Nu) is bounded in terms of the dimensionless temperature difference across the layer (the Rayleigh number Ra) according to Nu less than or equal to Ra/16rootTa+1 This rigorous upper bound shows that rotation has a retarding effect on convective heat transport. (C) 2003 Published by Elsevier Ltd.