Linear and Weakly Nonlinear Stability Analyses of Two-Dimensional,Steady Brinkman–Bénard Convection Using Local Thermal Non-equilibrium Model

Effect of local thermal non-equilibrium (LTNE) on onset of Brinkman–Bénard convection and on heat transport is investigated. Rigid–rigid and free–free, isothermal boundaries are considered for investigation. The assumption of LTNE leads to an ‘advanced onset’ situation compared to that predicted by the local thermal equilibrium (LTE) assumption. This results in the ‘enhanced heat transport’ situation in the problem. Asymptotic analysis for small and large values of inter-phase heat transfer coefficient is also carried out on critical Rayleigh number, critical wave number and Nusselt number. In respect of boundary influences on onset and heat transport, it is found that classical results hold even under the LTNE assumption. The other parameters’ influences on onset and heat transport are qualitatively similar in LTNE and LTE cases.     

Onset of Rayleigh–Bénard convection in cold water near its density maximum in vertical annular containers

A set of three-dimensional numerical simulations of Rayleigh–Bénard convection in cold water near its density maximum in vertical annular containers is performed with the aim of determining the critical Rayleigh number at the onset of convection and the primary flow patterns for different geometric dimensions and density inversion parameters. The Prandtl number of cold water is about 11.57. The annular container is heated from below and cooled from above. The inner and outer sidewalls are considered to be perfectly adiabatic. The results obtained show that the critical Rayleigh number at the onset of convection increases with increase in the density inversion parameter and the radius ratio and with decrease in the aspect ratio. When the radius ratio is small, the flow patterns in vertical annular containers are similar to those in cylindrical containers. At large radius ratios the flow pattern is relatively simple, with several convective rolls observable along the azimuthal direction and similar with those characteristic of Rayleigh–Bénard convection in the Boussinesq fluid. The stratified flow phenomenon is found to exist at moderate values of the density inversion parameter. The results are compared with those obtained in the Boussinesq fluid to reveal the effect of the density inversion parameter.     

The Onset of Darcy–Brinkman Electroconvection in a Dielectric Fluid Saturated Porous Layer

The combined effect of a vertical AC electric field and the boundaries on the onset of Darcy–Brinkman convection in a dielectric fluid saturated porous layer heated either from below or above is investigated using linear stability theory. The isothermal bounding surfaces of the porous layer are considered to be either rigid or free. It is established that the principle of exchange of stability is valid irrespective of the nature of velocity boundary conditions. The eigenvalue problem is solved exactly for free–free (F/F) boundaries and numerically using the Galerkin technique for rigid–rigid (R/R) and lower-rigid and upper-free (F/R) boundaries. It is observed that all the boundaries exhibit qualitatively similar results. The presence of electric field is emphasized on the stability of the system and it is shown that increasing the AC electric Rayleigh number R _ea is to facilitate the transfer of heat more effectively and to hasten the onset of Darcy–Brinkman convection. Whereas, increase in the ratio of viscosities Λ and the inverse Darcy number Da ⁻¹ is to delay the onset of Darcy–Brinkman electroconvection. Besides, increasing R _ea and Da ⁻¹ as well as decreasing Λ are to reduce the size of convection cells.     

Henri Bénard: Thermal convection and vortex shedding

We present in this article the work of Henri Bénard (1874–1939), a French physicist who began the systematic experimental study of two hydrodynamic systems: the thermal convection of fluids heated from below (the Rayleigh–Bénard convection and the Bénard–Marangoni convection) and the periodical vortex shedding behind a bluff body in a flow (the Bénard–Kármán vortex street). Across his scientific biography, we review the interplay between experiments and theory in these two major subjects of fluid mechanics.     

Thermal Instability in a Porous Medium Layer Saturated by a Nanofluid: Brinkman Model

The onset of convection in a horizontal layer of a porous medium saturated by a nanofluid is studied analytically. The model used for the nanofluid incorporates the effects of Brownian motion and thermophoresis. For the porous medium, the Brinkman model is employed. Three cases of free–free, rigid–rigid, and rigid–free boundaries are considered. The analysis reveals that for a typical nanofluid (with large Lewis number), the prime effect of the nanofluids is via a buoyancy effect coupled with the conservation of nanoparticles, whereas the contribution of nanoparticles to the thermal energy equation is a second-order effect. It is found that the critical thermal Rayleigh number can be reduced or increased by a substantial amount, depending on whether the basic nanoparticle distribution is top-heavy or bottom-heavy, by the presence of the nanoparticles. Oscillatory instability is possible in the case of a bottom-heavy nanoparticle distribution.     

Küppers–Lortz Instability in the Rotating Brinkman–Bénard Problem

Transport in Porous Media - We investigate the Küppers–Lortz (KL) instability in the rotating Brinkman–Bénard convection problem by assuming that there is local thermal...     

A Non-normal-Mode Marginal State of Convection in a Porous Rectangle

Transport in Porous Media - The fourth-order Darcy–Bénard eigenvalue problem for onset of thermal convection in a 2D rectangular porous box is investigated. The conventional type of...     

Stationary Fingering Instability in a Non-equilibrium Porous Medium with Coupled Molecular Diffusion

Finger type double diffusive convective instability in a fluid-saturated porous medium is studied in the presence of coupled heat-solute diffusion. A local thermal non-equilibrium (LTNE) condition is invoked to model the Darcian porous medium which takes into account the energy transfer between the fluid and solid phases. Linear stability theory is implemented to compute the critical thermal Rayleigh number and the corresponding wavenumber exactly for the onset of stationary convection. The effects of Soret and Dufour cross-diffusion parameters, inter-phase heat transfer coefficient and porosity modified conductivity ratio on the instability of the system are investigated. The analysis shows that positive Soret mass flux triggers instability and positive Dufour energy flux enhances stability whereas their combined influence depends on the product of solutal Rayleigh number and Lewis number. It also reveals that cell width at the convection threshold gets affected only in the presence of both the cross-diffusion fluxes. Besides, asymptotic solutions for both small and large values of the inter-phase heat transfer coefficient and porosity modified conductivity ratio are found. An excellent agreement is found between the exact and asymptotic solutions.     

The effects of local thermal nonequilibrium and MFD viscosity on the onset of Brinkman ferroconvection

The simultaneous effect of local thermal nonequilibrium (LTNE) and magnetic field dependent (MFD) viscosity on thermal convective instability in a horizontal ferrofluid saturated Brinkman porous layer in the presence of a uniform vertical magnetic field is studied analytically. The results indicate that the onset of Brinkman ferroconvection is delayed with increasing MFD viscosity parameter but the critical wave number is found to be independent of this parameter. When compared to the simultaneous presence of buoyancy and magnetic forces, it is observed that the onset of Brinkman ferroconvection is delayed more when the magnetic forces alone are present. Asymptotic solutions for both small and large values of scaled inter-phase heat transfer coefficient H _t are compared with those computed numerically and good agreement is found between them. Besides, the influence of magnetic and LTNE parameters on the stability characteristics of the system is also discussed. The available results in the literature are recovered as particular cases from the present study.     

Linear and Nonlinear Stability Analysis of a Horton–Rogers–Lapwood Problem with an Internal Heat Source and Brinkman Effects

The effect of internal heat source on convection in a layer of fluid in a porous medium was analyzed using linear and nonlinear analysis, and boundaries are assumed to be stress-free and isothermal. Normal mode technique is used for linear analysis, and energy method is used for nonlinear stability analysis. The presence of heat generation leads to the possibility of the existence of a subcritical instability. Effects of increase of Darcy–Brinkman number and internal heat parameter on critical Rayleigh numbers were analyzed numerically using Chebyshev pseudospectral method.     

A Non-normal-mode Marginal State of Convection in a Porous Box with Insulating End-Walls

Transport in Porous Media - The 4th order Darcy–Bénard eigenvalue problem for the onset of thermal convection in a 3D rectangular porous box is investigated. We start from a recent 2D...     

Oscillatory Convection Onset in a Porous Rectangle with Non-analytical Corners

The analytical theory on Darcy–Bénard convection is dominated by normal-mode approaches, which essentially reduce the spatial order from four to two. This paper goes beyond the normal-mode paradigm of convection onset in a porous rectangle. A handpicked case where all four corners of the rectangle are non-analytical is therefore investigated. The marginal state is oscillatory with one-way horizontal wave propagation. The time-periodic convection pattern has no spatial periodicity and requires heavy numerical computation by the finite element method. The critical Rayleigh number at convection onset is computed, with its associated frequency of oscillation. Snapshots of the 2D eigenfunctions for the flow field and temperature field are plotted. Detailed local gradient analyses near two corners indicate that they hide logarithmic singularities, where the displayed eigenfunctions may represent outer solutions in matched asymptotic expansions. The results are validated with respect to the asymptotic limit of Nield (Water Resour Res 11:553–560, 1968).

     

Weakly Nonlinear Convection in a Porous Layer with Multiple Horizontal Partitions

We consider convection in a horizontally uniform fluid-saturated porous layer which is heated from below and which is split into a number of identical sublayers by impermeable and infinitesimally thin horizontal partitions. Rees and Genç (Int J Heat Mass Transfer 54:3081–3089, 2010) determined the onset criterion by means of a detailed analytical and numerical study of the corresponding dispersion relation and showed that this layered system behaves like the single-sublayer constant-heat-flux Darcy–Bénard problem when the number of sublayers becomes large. The aim of the present work is to use a weakly nonlinear analysis to determine whether the layered system also shares the property of the single-sublayer constant-heat-flux Darcy–Bénard problem by having square cells, as opposed to rolls, as the preferred planform for convection.     

Non-Darcian Effects on the Onset of Convection in a Porous Layer with Throughflow

The Brinkman extended Darcy model including Lapwood and Forchheimer inertia terms with fluid viscosity being different from effective viscosity is employed to investigate the effect of vertical throughflow on thermal convective instabilities in a porous layer. Three different types of boundary conditions (free–free, rigid–rigid and rigid–free) are considered which are either conducting or insulating to temperature perturbations. The Galerkin method is used to calculate the critical Rayleigh numbers for conducting boundaries, while closed form solutions are achieved for insulating boundaries. The relative importance of inertial resistance on convective instabilities is investigated in detail. In the case of rigid–free boundaries, it is found that throughflow is destabilizing depending on the choice of physical parameters and the model used. Further, it is noted that an increase in viscosity ratio delays the onset of convection. Standard results are also obtained as particular cases from the general model presented here.     

THE BNARD CONVECTION IN A LAYER OF FLUID WITH A TIME-DEPENDENT MEAN TEMPERATURE

The onset of Bénard convection, or the critical Rayleigh number in a layer of fluid with a time-dependent mean temperature has been investigated theoretically. The critical Rayleigh number is regarded as a function of time and is expanded in series of a small parameter. Up to second approximation a simple expression of critical Rayleigh number is obtained for the time region for away from the point of zero.     

Flow structures of turbulent Rayleigh–Bénard convection in annular cells with aspect ratio one and larger

Acta Mechanica Sinica - We present an experimental study of flow structures in turbulent Rayleigh–Bénard convection in annular cells of aspect ratios $$\varGamma =1$$ , 2 and 4, and...     

The Onset of Double-Diffusive Nanofluid Convection in a Layer of a Saturated Porous Medium

The onset of convection in a horizontal layer of a porous medium saturated by a nanofluid is studied analytically. The model used for the nanofluid incorporates the effects of Brownian motion and thermophoresis. For the porous medium, the Brinkman model is employed. Three cases of free–free, rigid–rigid, and rigid–free boundaries are considered. The analysis reveals that for a typical nanofluid (with large Lewis number), the prime effect of the nanofluids is via a buoyancy effect coupled with the conservation of nanoparticles, whereas the contribution of nanoparticles to the thermal energy equation is a second-order effect. It is found that the critical thermal Rayleigh number can be reduced or increased by a substantial amount, depending on whether the basic nanoparticle distribution is top-heavy or bottom-heavy, by the presence of the nanoparticles. Oscillatory instability is possible in the case of a bottom-heavy nanoparticle distribution.     

Instability of the Benard–Marangoni Convection in a Porous Layer Affected by a Non-Vertical Magnetic Field

The onset of the Benard–Marangoni convection in a horizontal porous layer permeated by a magnetohydrodynamic fluid with a nonlinear magnetic permeability is examined. The porous layer is assumed to be governed by the Brinkman model; it is bounded by a rigid surface from below and by a non-deformable free surface from above and subjected to a non-vertical magnetic field. The critical effective Marangoni number and the critical Rayleigh number are obtained for different values of the effective Darcy number, Biot number, Chandrasekhar number, nonlinear magnetic parameter, and angle from the vertical axis for the cases of stationary convection and overstability. The related eigenvalue problem is solved by using the first-order Chebyshev polynomial method.     

The Prandtl number effect near the onset of Bénard convection in a porous medium

This note focuses on Kladias and Prasad's claim that the critical Rayleigh number for the onset of Bénard convection in an infinite horizontal porous layer increases as the Prandtl number decreases, and argues that the critical Rayleigh number (Ra_c) depends only on the Darcy number (Da), as linear stability analysis indicates. The two-dimensional steady-convection problem is then solved numerically to document the convection heat transfer effect of the Rayleigh number, Darcy number, Prandtl number, and porosity. The note concludes with an empirical correlation for the overall Nusselt number, which shows the effect of Prandtl number at above-critical Rayleigh numbers. The correlation is consistent with the corresponding correlation known for Bénard convection in a pure fluid.