Convection in a low Prandtl number fluid with internal heating

This paper studies the problem of non-linear thermal convection in a horizontal layer of a low Prandtl number fluid with nearly insulating boundaries and in the presence of horizontally uniform internal heat sources. Two-dimensional rolls and hexagonal cells are found to be the only possible stable convection cells. Subcritical instability associated with the hexagons can occur for a range of the amplitude of convection. It is found that non-uniform internal heating can affect various flow features and the stability of the convective motion. A new subcritical instability which exists even in a symmetric layer with arbitrary Prandtl number is also found for the case where the variations of the internal heating with respect to the vertical variable is sufficiently high.