Linear and nonlinear double diffusive convection in a rotating sparsely packed porous layer using a thermal non-equilibrium model

Double diffusive convection in a fluid-saturated rotating porous layer is studied when the fluid and solid phases are not in local thermal equilibrium, using both linear and nonlinear stability analyses. The Brinkman model that includes the Coriolis term is employed as the momentum equation. A two-field model that represents the fluid and solid phase temperature fields separately is used for the energy equation. The onset criterion for stationary, oscillatory, and finite amplitude convection is derived analytically. It is found that small inter-phase heat transfer coefficient has significant effect on the stability of the system. There is a competition between the processes of thermal diffusion, solute diffusion, and rotation that causes the convection to set in through either oscillatory or finite amplitude mode rather than stationary. The effect of solute Rayleigh number, porosity modified conductivity ratio, Lewis number, diffusivity ratio, Vadasz number, and Taylor number on the stability of the system is investigated. The nonlinear theory based on the truncated representation of Fourier series method predicts the occurrence of subcritical instability in the form of finite amplitude motions. The effect of thermal non-equilibrium on heat and mass transfer is also brought out. Some of the convection systems previously reported in the literature is shown to be special cases of the system presented in this study.     

Linear and nonlinear stability analysis of binary Maxwell fluid convection in a porous medium

The stability analysis of the quiescent state in a Maxwell fluid-saturated densely packed porous medium subject to vertical concentration and temperature gradients is presented. A single phase model with local thermal equilibrium between the porous matrix and the Maxwell fluid is assumed. The critical Darcy–Rayleigh numbers and the corresponding wave numbers for the onset of stationary and oscillatory convection are determined. A Lorenz like system is obtained for weakly nonlinear stability analysis.     

On estimating the complex growth rates in ferromagnetic convection with magnetic-field-dependent viscosity in a rotating sparsely distributed porous medium

It is proved analytically that the complex growth rate of an arbitrary oscillatory motion of growing amplitude in ferromagnetic convection with magnetic-field-dependent viscosity in a rotating sparsely distributed porous medium for the case of free boundaries is located inside a semicircle in the right half of the plane whose centre is at the origin of the coordinate system and whose radius depends on the Rayleigh number, Prandtl number, Taylor number, and magnetic number. Bounds for the case of rigid boundaries are also derived.     

Horizontal thermal convection in a porous medium

Linearised instability and nonlinear stability bounds for thermal convection in a fluid-filled porous finite box are derived. A nonuniform temperature field in the steady state is generated by maintaining the vertical walls at different temperatures. The linearised instability threshold is shown to be well above the global stability boundary, which is strongly suggested by the lack of symmetry in the perturbed system. The numerical results are evaluated utilising a newly developed Legendre-polynomial-based spectral method.     

Nonlinear convection in a non-Darcy porous medium

In this paper, the natural convection in a non-Darcy porous medium is studied using a temperature-concentration-dependent density relation. The effect of the two parameters responsible for the nonlinear convection is analyzed for different values of the inertial parameter, dispersion parameters, Rayleigh number, Lewis number, Soret number, and Dufour number. In the aiding buoyancy, the tangential velocity increases steeply with an increase in the nonlinear temperature parameter and the nonlinear concentration parameter when the inertial effect is zero. However, when the inertial effect is non-zero, the effect of the nonlinear temperature parameter and the nonlinear concentration parameter on the tangential velocity is marginal. The concentration distribution varies appreciably and spreads in different ranges for different values of the double dispersion parameters, the inertial effect parameter, and also for the parameters which control the nonlinear temperature and the nonlinear concentration. Heat and mass transfer varies extensively with an increase in the nonlinear temperature parameter and the nonlinear concentration parameter depending on Dacry and non-Darcy porous media. The variation in heat and mass transfer when all the effects, i.e., the inertial effect, double dispersion ef- fects, and Soret and Dufour effects, are simultaneously zero and non-zero. The combined effects of the nonlinear temperature parameter, the nonlinear concentration parameter and buoyancy are analyzed. The effect of the nonlinear temperature parameter and the nonlinear concentration parameter and also the cross diffusion effects on heat and mass transfer are observed to be more in Darcy porous media compared with those in non- Darcy porous media. In the opposing buoyancy, the effect of the temperature parameter is to increase the heat and mass transfer rate, whereas that of the concentration parameter is to decrease.     

Stability analysis of soret-driven double-diffusive convection of Maxwell fluid in a porous medium

Stability analysis of double-diffusive convection for viscoelastic fluid with Soret effect in a porous medium is investigated using a modified-Maxwell-Darcy model. We use the linear stability analysis to investigate how the Soret parameter and the relaxation time of viscoelastic fluid effect the onset of convection and the selection of an unstable wavenumber. It is found that the Soret effect is to destabilize the system for oscillatory convection. The relaxation time also enhances the instability of the system. The effects of Soret coefficient and relaxation time on the heat transfer rate in a porous medium are studied using the nonlinear stability analysis, the variation of the Nusselt number with respect to the Rayleigh number is derived for stationary and oscillatory convection modes. Some previous results can be reduced as the special cases of the present paper.     

Measurements of thermally-induced convection in a model porous medium

The velocity field generated by thermal convection in a model porous medium is experimentally determined by means of both PIV and LDA techniques. Details of matching refraction index under non isothermal conditions are given. Fields are measured in the empty parallelepipedic cell and in a model medium made of parallel circular bundles. Results are in good agreement. Moreover, by an averaging technique, we are able to measure seeping velocity profiles.     

Conditional and unconditional nonlinear stability for convection induced by absorption of radiation in a porous medium

Convection induced by the selective absorption of radiation is investigated, for the case of an internal heat source that is modelled quadratically with respect to concentration. The growth rate for the linearised system is shown to be real, and a linear instability analysis is performed. To establish conditional and unconditional nonlinear stability results, both the Darcy and Forchheimer models are employed to describe fluid flow. Due to the presence of significant regions of potential subcritical instabilities, the results indicate that linear theory may only be accurate enough to predict the onset of convective motion when the model for the internal heat source is predominantly linear.Received: 6 May 2003, Accepted: 9 August 2003, Published online: 12 December 2003     

Necessary and sufficient conditions of global nonlinear stability for rotating double-diffusive convection in a porous medium

The nonlinear stability of the conduction-diffusion solution of a fluid mixture heated and salted from below (and of a homogeneous fluid heated from below) and saturating a porous medium is studied with the Lyapunov direct method. Both Darcy and Brinkman models have been used. The porous medium is bounded by two horizontal parallel planes and is rotating about a vertical axis. Necessary and sufficient conditions of unconditional stability are proved (i.e., the critical linear and nonlinear stability Rayleigh numbers coincide). Our results generalize those given by Straughan [21] for a homogeneous fluid in the Darcy regime. In the case of a mixture two stabilizing effects act: that of the rotation and of the concentration of the solute. Received March 05, 2002 / Published online June 4, 2002 RID="a" ID="a" e-mail: lombardo@dmi.unict.it RID="b" ID="b" e-mail: mulone@dmi.unict.it Communicated by Brian Straugham, Durham     

An analytical study of nonlinear double-diffusive convection in a porous medium under temperature/gravity modulation

The article deals with nonlinear thermal instability problem of double-diffusive convection in a porous medium subjected to temperature/gravity modulation. Three types of imposed time-periodic boundary temperature (ITBT) are considered. The effect of imposed time-periodic gravity modulation (ITGM) is also studied in this problem. In the case of ITBT, the temperature gradient between the walls of the fluid layer consists of a steady part and a time-dependent periodic part. The temperature of both walls is modulated in this case. In the problem involving ITGM, the gravity field has two parts: a constant part and an externally imposed time-periodic part. Using power series expansion in terms of the amplitude of modulation, which is assumed to be small, the problem has been studied using the Ginzburg–Landau amplitude equation. The individual effects of temperature and gravity modulation on heat and mass transports have been investigated in terms of Nusselt number and Sherwood number, respectively. Further the effects of various parameters on heat and mass transports have been analyzed and depicted graphically.     

Combined convection along a non-isothermal wedge in a porous medium

A boundary layer analysis has been presented for the combined convection along a vertical non-isothermal wedge embedded in a fluid-saturated porous medium. The transformed conservation laws are solved numerically for the case of variable surface temperature. Results are presented for the details of the velocity and temperature fields as well as the Nusselt number. The wedge angle geometry parameter m ranged from 0 to 1.     

Natural convection in a vertical strip immersed in a porous medium

In this work, the conjugated heat transfer characteristics of a thin vertical strip of finite length, placed in a porous medium has been studied using numerical and asymptotic techniques. The nondimensional temperature distribution in the strip and the reduced Nusselt number at the top of the strip are obtained as a function of the thermal penetration parameter s, which measures the thermal region where the temperature of the strip decays to the ambient temperature of the surrounding fluid. The numerical values of this nondimensional parameter permits to classify the different physical regimes, showing different solutions: a thermally long behaviour, an intermediate transition and a short strip limit.     

Entropy generation analysis of thermally developing forced convection in fluid-saturated porous medium

Entropy generation for thermally developing forced convection in a porous medium bounded by two isothermal parallel plates is investigated analytically on the basis of the Darcy flow model where the viscous dissipation effects had also been taken into account. A parametric study showed that decreasing the group parameter and the Peclet number increases the entropy generation while for the Brinkman number the converse is true. Heatline visualization technique is applied with an emphasis on the Br 〈 0 case where there is somewhere that heat transfer changes direction at some streamwise location to the wall instead of its original direction, i.e., from the wall.     

Non-linear convection in a porous medium with internal heat sources

The paper studies non-linear thermal convection in a horizontal porous layer of fluid with nearly insulating boundaries and in the presence of internal heat sources. Square and hexagonal cells are found to be the only possible stable convection cells. Finite amplitude instability could exist for some particular forms of an internal heat source Q. For a uniform Q, the preferred flow pattern is that of hexagons for amplitude ε smaller than some critical value ε_c, while both squares and hexagonal cells are stable for ε ? ε_c. The convective motion is downward at the hexagonal cell's centers. For a non-uniform Q, the qualitative features of thermal convection depend on the actual form Q. In particular, a non-uniform Q can increase or decrease the cell's size and the critical Rayleigh number at the onset of convection, and stabilize or destabilize the convective motion in the form of hexagonal cells with either upward or downward motion at the cell's centers.     

Nonlinear hydro-magnetic convection at a permeable cylinder in a porous medium

We consider the longitudinal steady nonlinear hydromagnetic convection flow over a permeable vertical cylinder in a porous medium. We assume that both the mainstream velocity at the outer edge of the boundary layer and the surface temperature of the cylinder vary linearly with axial distance from the leading edge, and extend the existing literature by including the nonlinear density temperature variation, magnetic field, and heat source/sink.     

Nonlinear cellular convection and heat transport in a porous medium

Nonlinear steady cellular convection in a fluid-saturated porous medium is investigated using the technique of spectral analysis. The effect of permeability is shown to contract the cell and to damp the convection process. The influence of Prandtl number, though small, is seen only in the fourth order term. The cross-interactions of the higher modes caused by nonlinear effects are considered through the modal Rayleigh number R . The possibility of the existence of a steady solution with two self-excited modes in certain regions is predicted. A detailed discussion of the heat transport is made. The theoretical value of the Nusselt number is found to be in good agreement with the experimental results. The similarities and qualitative differences between the present analysis and that of the power integral technique are brought out.     

Mixed convection about a non-isothermal vertical surface in a porous medium

The problem of mixed convection about non-isothermal vertical surfaces in a saturated porous medium is analysed using boundary layer approximations. The analysis is made assuming that the surface temperature varies as an arbitrary function of the distance from the origin. A perturbation technique has been applied to obtain the solutions. Using the differentials of the wall temperature, which are functions of distance along the surface, as perturbation elements, universal functions are derived for various values of the governing parameter Gr/Re. Both aiding and opposing flows are considered. The universal functions obtained can be used to estimate the heat transfer and fluid velocity inside the boundary layer for any type of wall temperature variation. As a demonstration of the method, heat transfer results have been presented for the case of the wall temperature varying as a power function of the distance from the origin. The results have been studied for various combinations of the parameters Gr/Re and the power index m, taking both aiding and opposing flows into consideration. On comparing these results with those obtained by a similarity analysis, the agreement is found to be good.     

Weakly nonlinear stability analysis of triple diffusive convection in a Maxwell fluid saturated porous layer

The weakly nonlinear stability of the triple diffusive convection in a Maxwell fluid saturated porous layer is investigated. In some cases, disconnected oscillatory neutral curves are found to exist, indicating that three critical thermal Darcy-Rayleigh numbers are required to specify the linear instability criteria. However, another distinguishing feature predicted from that of Newtonian fluids is the impossibility of quasi-periodic bifurcation from the rest state. Besides, the co-dimensional two bifurcation points are located in the Darcy-Prandtl number and the stress relaxation parameter plane. It is observed that the value of the stress relaxation parameter defining the crossover between stationary and oscillatory bifurcations decreases when the Darcy-Prandtl number increases. A cubic Landau equation is derived based on the weakly nonlinear stability analysis. It is found that the bifurcating oscillatory solution is either supercritical or subcritical, depending on the choice of the physical parameters. Heat and mass transfers are estimated in terms of time and area-averaged Nusselt numbers.     

Non-Darcy natural convection from a vertical wavy surface in a porous medium

We examine the combined effect of spatially stationary surface waves and the presence of fluid inertia on the free convection induced by a vertical heated surface embedded in a fluid-saturated porous medium. We consider the boundary-layer regime where the Darcy-Rayleigh number, Ra, is very large, and assume that the surface waves have O(1) amplitude and wavelength. The resulting boundary-layer equations are found to be nonsimilar only when the surface is nonuniform and inertia effects are present; self-similarity results when either or both effects are absent. Detailed results for the local and global rates of heat transfer are presented for a range of values of the inertia parameter and the surface wave amplitude.