2-DIMENSIONAL RADIATIVE CONVECTION IN THE EDDINGTON APPROXIMATION

A numerical study of two-dimensional convection in a system in which heat may be transported by conduction and by radiation has been undertaken. Radiative effects are treated in the Eddington approximation, the suitability of which in such a calculation is considered. An equation of transfer for the mean intensity arises and is solved using a multigrid method. At moderate values of the Rayleigh number, flows started from small initial perturbations settle into steady states with very thin thermal boundary layers and plumes at the edges of the convective cell: their presence can be explained by considering the relative magnitudes of the radiative and conductive cooling times. © Royal Astronomical Society. Provided by the NASA Astrophysics Data System.