In a recent study of the convergence properties of finite element methods in nonlinear fluid mechanics, an indirect approach was taken. A two-dimensional example with a known exact solution was chosen as the vehicle for the study, and various mesh refinements were tested in an attempt to extract information on the effect of the local Reynolds number. However, more direct approaches are usually preferred. In this study one such direct approach is followed, based upon the spectral decomposition of the solution operator. Spectral decomposition is widely employed as a solution technique for linear structural dynamics problems and can be applied readily to linear, transient heat transfer analysis; in this case, the extension to nonlinear problems is of interest. It was shown previously that spectral techniques were applicable to stiff systems of rate equations, while recent studies of geometrically and materially nonlinear structural dynamics have demonstrated the increased information content of the numerical results. The use of spectral decomposition in nonlinear problems of heat and mass transfer would be expected to yield equally increased flow of information to the analyst, and this information could include a quantitative comparison of various solution strategies, meshes, and element hierarchies.