High Rayleigh number convection with strongly variable viscosity: a comparison between mean field and two-dimensional solutions.

We have studied single-mode mean field equations associated with variable viscosity convection for both steady state and time-dependent situations. Both temperature-dependent and temperature- and pressure-dependent viscosity with the surface viscosity fixed have been studied. Our results show that the differences between the 2 approaches grow with both viscosity contrast and convective vigor.-from Authors