Stationary Transverse Diffusion in a Horizontal Porous Medium Boundary-Layer Flow with Concentration-Dependent Fluid Density and Viscosity

Stable transport of high-concentrated solute is considered in horizontal boundary-layer flows above a wall of constant concentration. Mixing is accomplished by advection and molecular diffusion only. The utilized boundary-layer approximation allows to investigate the exclusive influence of gravity on vertical diffusion. The hydrodynamic dispersion mechanism was disregarded in the present study which confines its applicabilty to flows with small molecular Péclet numbers. A linear variability of both the fluid's density and viscosity with changing concentration is taken into account as well as the complete set of mass-fraction based balance equations. Steady-state concentration and velocity distributions above the horizontal wall have been obtained using the series truncation method which recently had proven successful to solve the corresponding problem using the Boussinesq assumption. The impact of the latter on these distributions is discussed by what has been additionally-facilitated by the existence of an exact analytical solution for the simpler Boussinesq case. Whereas no density variability influence exists with use of the Boussinesq assumption the complete system of mass-fraction based equations predicts opposing effects of density and viscosity differences between oncoming and near-wall fluids on concentration distributions. Larger density differences narrow the transition zone between both fluids, larger viscosity differences widen it. Thus, a compensation of both effects can be observed for individual fluids and for certain regions of the flow field.     

Gravity Affected Lateral Dispersion and Diffusion in a Stationary Horizontal Porous Medium Shear Flow

Transport of dissolved species by a carrier fluid in a porous medium comprises advection and diffusion/dispersion processes. Hydrodynamic dispersion is commonly characterized by an empirical relationship, in which the dispersion mechanism is described by contributions of molecular diffusion and mechanical dispersion expressed as a function of the molecular Peclét number. Mathematically these two phenomena are modeled by a constant diffusion coefficient and by velocity dependent dispersion coefficients, respectively. Here, the commonly utilized Bear--Scheidegger dispersion model of linear proportionality between mechanical dispersion and velocity, and the more complicated Bear--Bachmat model derived on a streamtube array model porous medium and better describing observed dispersion coefficients in the moderate molecular Peclét number range, will be considered. Analyzing the mixing flow of two parallelly flowing confluent fluids with different concentrations of a dissolved species within the frames of boundary layer theory one has to deal with transverse mixing only. With the Boussinesq approximation being adopted approximate analytical solutions of the corresponding boundary layer system of equations show that there is no effect of density coupling on concentration distributions across the mixing layer in the pure molecular diffusion regime case. With the Peclét number of the oncoming flow growing beyond unity, density coupling has an increasing influence on the mixing zone. When the Peclét number grows further this influence is successively reduced until its disappearance in the pure mechanical dispersion regime.     

Thermal Instability in a Porous Medium Layer Saturated with a Viscoelastic Nanofluid

The onset of convection in a horizontal layer of a porous medium saturated with a viscoelastic nanofluid was studied in this article. The modified Darcy model was applied to simulate the momentum equation in porous media. An Oldroyd-B type constitutive equation was used to describe the rheological behavior of viscoelastic nanofluids. The model used for the viscoelastic nanofluid incorporates the effects of Brownian motion and thermophoresis. The onset criterion for stationary and oscillatory convection was analytically derived. The effects of the concentration Rayleigh number, Prandtl number, Lewis number, capacity ratio, relaxation, and retardation parameters on the stability of the system were investigated. Oscillatory instability is possible in both bottom- and top-heavy nanoparticle distributions. Results indicated that there is competition among the processes of thermophoresis, Brownian diffusion, and viscoelasticity that causes the convection to set in through oscillatory rather than stationary modes. Regimes of stationary and oscillatory convection for various parameters were derived and are discussed in detail.     

Local Thermal Non-equilibrium Analysis of the Instability in a Vertical Porous Slab with Permeable Sidewalls

Buoyant flow in a fluid-saturated porous vertical slab with isothermal and permeable boundaries is performed. Two reservoirs, maintained at different uniform temperatures, confine the slab. The permeable plane boundaries of the slab are modelled by imposing a condition of hydrostatic pressure. Darcy’s law and the Oberbeck–Boussinesq approximation are employed. The hypothesis of local thermal equilibrium between the fluid and the solid phase is relaxed. A two-temperature model is adopted, so that two local energy balance equations govern the heat transfer in the porous slab. The basic stationary buoyant flow consists of a single convective cell of infinite height. The time evolution of normal mode perturbations superposed onto the basic state is investigated in order to determine the onset conditions for thermal instability. A pressure–temperature formulation is employed. Major asymptotic cases are investigated. It is shown that departure from local thermal equilibrium implies in general a destabilisation of the basic stationary flow.     

Fingering Instability in Water-Oil Displacement

Following the classical Buckley–Leverett theory for the two-phase immiscible flows in porous media a non-linear evolution equation for the water-oil displacement front is formulated and studied numerically. The numerical simulations yield a physically plausible picture of the fingering instability known to develop in water-oil systems. A way to control the unrestricted growth of fingers is discussed. Distinctions and similarities with dynamically related Saffman–Taylor and Darrieus–Landau problems are outlined.     

Miscible Thermo-Viscous Fingering Instability in Porous Media. Part 2: Numerical Simulations

The development of the thermo-viscous fingering instability of miscible displacements in homogeneous porous media is examined. In this first part of the study dealing with stability analysis, the basic equations and the parameters governing the problem in a rectilinear geometry are developed. An exponential dependence of viscosity on temperature and concentration is represented by two parameters, thermal mobility ratio β _T and a solutal mobility ratio β _C , respectively. Other parameters involved are the Lewis number Le and a thermal-lag coefficient λ. The governing equations are linearized and solved to obtain instability characteristics using either a quasi-steady-state approximation (QSSA) or initial value calculations (IVC). Exact analytical solutions are also obtained for very weakly diffusing systems. Using the QSSA approach, it was found that an increase in thermal mobility ratio β _T is seen to enhance the instability for fixed β _C , Le and λ. For fixed β _C and β _T , a decrease in the thermal-lag coefficient and/or an increase in the Lewis number always decrease the instability. Moreover, strong thermal diffusion at large Le as well as enhanced redistribution of heat between the solid and fluid phases at small λ is seen to alleviate the destabilizing effects of positive β _T . Consequently, the instability gets strictly dominated by the solutal front. The linear stability analysis using IVC approach leads to conclusions similar to the QSSA approach except for the case of large Le and unity λ flow where the instability is seen to get even less pronounced than in the case of a reference isothermal flow of the same β _C , but β _T  = 0. At practically, small value of λ, however, the instability ultimately approaches that due to β _C only.     

Viscous Fingering Instability in Porous Media: Effect of Anisotropic Velocity-Dependent Dispersion Tensor

The viscous fingering of miscible flow displacements in a homogeneous porous media is examined to determine the effects of an anisotropic dispersion tensor on the development of the instability. In particular, the role of velocity-dependent transverse and longitudinal dispersions is investigated through linear stability analysis and nonlinear simulations. It is found that an isotropic velocity-dependent dispersion tensor does not affect substantially the development of the instability and effectively has the same effect as molecular diffusion. On the other hand, an anisotropic velocity-dependent dispersion tensor results in different instability characteristics and more intricate finger structures. It is shown that anisotropic dispersion has profound effects on the development of the fingers and on the mechanisms of interactions between neighboring fingers. The development of the new finger structures is explained by examining the velocity field and characterized qualitatively through a spectral analysis of the average concentration and an analysis of the variations of the sweep efficiency and relative contact area.     

Vortex Instability of the Asymptotic Dissipation Profile in a Porous Medium

In this note we consider the thermoconvective stability of the recently-discovered asymptotic dissipation profile (ADP). The ADP is a uniform thickness, parallel-flow boundary layer which is induced by a cold surface in a warm saturated porous medium in the presence of viscous dissipation. We have considered destabilisation in the form of stream-wise vortex disturbances. The critical wavenumber and Rayleigh number for the onset of convection have been determined for all angles of the cooled surface between the horizontal and the vertical for which the ADP exists. The paper closes with a presentation of some strongly nonlinear computations of steady vortices.     

Cross Diffusion Convection in a Newtonian Fluid-Saturated Rotating Porous Medium

Effect of rotation on linear and nonlinear instability of cross-diffusive convection in an anisotropic porous medium saturated with Newtonian fluid has been investigated. Normal mode technique has been used for linear stability analysis, however nonlinear analysis is done using spectral method, involving only two terms. The Darcy model with Coriolis terms, has been employed in the momentum equation. Nonlinear analysis is used to find the thermal and concentration Nusselt numbers. The effects of various parameters, including Soret and Dufour parameters, on stationary and oscillatory convection, have been obtained, and shown graphically.     

Miscible Thermo-Viscous Fingering Instability in Porous Media. Part 1: Linear Stability Analysis

The development of the thermo-viscous fingering instability of miscible displacements in homogeneous porous media is examined. In this first part of the study dealing with stability analysis, the basic equations and the parameters governing the problem in a rectilinear geometry are developed. An exponential dependence of viscosity on temperature and concentration is represented by two parameters, thermal mobility ratio β _T and a solutal mobility ratio β _C , respectively. Other parameters involved are the Lewis number Le and a thermal-lag coefficient λ. The governing equations are linearized and solved to obtain instability characteristics using either a quasi-steady-state approximation (QSSA) or initial value calculations (IVC). Exact analytical solutions are also obtained for very weakly diffusing systems. Using the QSSA approach, it was found that an increase in thermal mobility ratio β _T is seen to enhance the instability for fixed β _C , Le and λ. For fixed β _C and β _T , a decrease in the thermal-lag coefficient and/or an increase in the Lewis number always decrease the instability. Moreover, strong thermal diffusion at large Le as well as enhanced redistribution of heat between the solid and fluid phases at small λ is seen to alleviate the destabilizing effects of positive β _T . Consequently, the instability gets strictly dominated by the solutal front. The linear stability analysis using IVC approach leads to conclusions similar to the QSSA approach except for the case of large Le and unity λ flow where the instability is seen to get even less pronounced than in the case of a reference isothermal flow of the same β _C , but β _T  = 0. At practically, small value of λ, however, the instability ultimately approaches that due to β _C only.     

Onset of Buoyancy-driven Instability in Porous Medium Solidified from Above

When a porous melt layer saturated by liquid is solidified from above, convection often sets in due to buoyancy forces. In this study, the onset of buoyancy-driven convection during time-dependent solidification is investigated by using the similarly transformed disturbance equations. The thermal disturbance distribution of the solid phase is approximated by the WKB method and effects of various parameters on the stability condition of the melt phase are analyzed theoretically. For the limiting case of λ → 0 and finite k _r, the critical conditions approach asymptotically and . This study presenting a constant-temperature cooling model predicts greater instability and gives more unstable results than those obtained from the constant solidification rate model.     

An Upgraded Porous Medium Coupled Transport Process Algorithm

Ever since the Yuster (1951) watershed paper appeared more than half a century ago, viscous coupling subject matter as discussed recently by Wang (1997) has been one of many recent writings that has taken on the importance of serving as a paradigm example of the relevance of coupling phenomena in general that are of interest to geohydrologists and their companion reservoir engineers. And that is why the focus here is put on some additional practical ideas that are intended to be of at least passing interest to professionals involved in field-conducted porous media transport process simulation studies. Specifically, new ideas will be presented in this note about prospective (i.e., plausible but still to be proven) ways to devise and employ algorithms that perhaps in fact should facilitate laboratory and field work conducted by experimentalists who occasionally are interested in shortcut ways to validate theoretical presumptions about the nature of what are hoped to be macroscopically meaningful models governing specific transport processes of interest. And mention will also be made about the parallel work of those who engage in computerized games as a logical way to forecast future reservoir performance outcomes by employing even simplistic variants of the classical Buckley–Leverett computational methodologies. The latter, for example, are of the sorts described in a contemporary sequel paper by Rose (2004). To be noted in particular, however, the analyses presented in what follows also support forecasting under field conditions future reservoir states which according to Gabrielli et al. (1996) can be made without the necessity of invoking any up-scaled principle of microscopic reversibility. This will be reasonable, for example, whenever there are no overriding needs to generate additional independent reciprocity relationships. In fact, the only constraint we shall be imposing here is that, for simplicity, attention will be limited only to some of those specific cases where linear polynomial relationships alone turn out to adequately describe the transport processes of specific interest, and this simply because they explicitly involve linearly related and macroscopically observable fluxes of mass, momentum and/or energy quanta that are sufficiently caused alone by attending conjugate thermodynamic driving forces. The computational algorithms to be described now (code-named here by a palindrome acronym, APTPA to serve as a code name for A Prospective Transport Process Algorithm) are ones that makes it possible to simultaneously solve the given N independent transport relationships that can contain as many as N² initially unknown transport coefficients whenever the inequality, (M N 1) holds, with M being an integer which is larger than unity (but, however, typically still equal to ... or only a bit larger than N). In addition, the companion devices to measure necessary reservoir rock sample properties will be based on the laboratory procedural methodologies recommended by Rose (1997) and further described in Rose (2004), as will be shown in the discussions that follow.     

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.     

Instability and Viscous Dissipation in the Horizontal Brinkman Flow through a Porous Medium

The convective instability activated by the sole effect of viscous dissipation in a fluid saturated porous layer is studied. The basic parallel flow in a highly permeable porous medium is analysed by considering the viscous heating contribution in the local energy balance, by assuming a thermally insulated lower boundary and an isothermal upper boundary. The Brinkman model of momentum transfer is adopted. Arbitrarily oriented oblique roll disturbances are considered in the linear stability analysis. Among them, the longitudinal rolls, having axis parallel to the basic flow direction, are shown to be the preferred mode of instability. Some considerations on the reliability of the Brinkman model, when the viscous dissipation contribution is not negligible and when the flow conditions are close to the limiting case of a clear fluid, are finally expressed.     

Effect of Thermal Non-Equilibrium on Convective Instability in a Ferromagnetic Fluid-Saturated Porous Medium

The effect of local thermal non-equilibrium (LTNE) on the onset of thermomagnetic convection in a ferromagnetic fluid-saturated horizontal porous layer in the presence of a uniform vertical magnetic field is investigated. A modified Forchheimer-extended Darcy equation is employed to describe the flow in the porous medium, and a two-field model is used for temperature representing the solid and fluid phases separately. It is found that both the critical Darcy–Rayleigh number and the corresponding wave number are modified by the LTNE effects. Asymptotic solutions for both small and large values of scaled interphase heat transfer coefficient H _t are presented and compared with those computed numerically. An excellent agreement is obtained between the asymptotic and the numerical results. Besides, the influence of magnetic parameters on the instability of the system is also discussed. The available results in the literature are recovered as particular cases from the present study.     

Convective Instability of Oldroyd-B Fluid Saturated Porous Layer Heated from Below using a Thermal Non-equilibrium Model

The linear stability of a viscoelastic fluid saturated densely packed horizontal porous layer heated from below and cooled from above is investigated by considering the Oldroyd-B type fluid. A generalized Darcy model, which takes into account the viscoelastic properties, is employed as momentum equation and a two-field model is used for energy equation each representing solid and fluid phases separately. Linear stability analysis suggests that, there is a competition between the processes of viscous relaxation and thermal diffusion that causes the first convective instability to be oscillatory rather than stationary. Analytical expression for the occurrence of oscillatory onset is obtained, and it is found that the necessary condition for the existence of the same is Λ < 1. Besides, the effect of viscoelastic parameters and the thermal non-equilibrium on the stability of the system is analyzed.     

Ferromagnetic Convection in a Heterogeneous Darcy Porous Medium Using a Local Thermal Non-equilibrium (LTNE) Model

The combined effects of vertical heterogeneity of permeability and local thermal non-equilibrium (LTNE) on the onset of ferromagnetic convection in a ferrofluid saturated Darcy porous medium in the presence of a uniform vertical magnetic field are investigated. A two-field model for temperature representing the solid and fluid phases separately is used. The eigenvalue problem is solved numerically using the Galerkin method for different forms of permeability heterogeneity function Γ(z) and their effect on the stability characteristics of the system has been analyzed in detail. It is observed that the general quadratic variation of Γ(z) with depth has more destabilizing effect on the system when compared to the homogeneous porous medium case. Besides, the influence of LTNE and magnetic parameters on the criterion for the onset of ferromagnetic convection is also assessed.     

Natural Convection Induced by a Heated Vertical Plate Embedded in a Porous Medium with Transpiration: Local Thermal Non-equilibrium Similarity Solutions

This paper is concerned with the thermal non-equilibrium free convection boundary layer, which is induced by a vertical heated plate embedded in a saturated porous medium. The effect of suction or injection on the free convection boundary layer is also studied. The plate is assumed to have a linear temperature distribution, which yields a boundary layer of constant thickness. On assuming Darcy flow, similarity solutions are obtained for governing the steady laminar boundary layer equations. The reduced Nusselt numbers for both the solid and fluid phases are calculated for a wide range of parameters, and compared with asymptotic analyses.     

Free Convection Heat Transfer over a Vertical Cylinder in a Saturated Porous Medium Using a Local Thermal Non-equilibrium Model

In this article, free convection heat transfer over a vertical cylinder with variable surface temperature distributions in a porous medium is analyzed. It is assumed that the fluid and solid phases are not in local thermal equilibrium and, therefore, a two-temperature model of heat transfer is applied. The coupled momentum and energy equations are presented and then they are transformed into ordinary differential equations. The similarity equations are solved numerically. The resulting velocity, streamlines, temperature distributions for fluid and solid phases are shown for different values of parameters entering into the problem. The calculated values of the local Nusselt numbers for both solid and fluid phases are also shown.     

Effect of Local Thermal Non-equilibrium on the Onset of Convection in a Porous Medium Layer Saturated by a Nanofluid

The onset of convection in a horizontal layer of a porous medium saturated by a nanofluid is analytically studied. The model used for the nanofluid incorporates the effects of Brownian motion and thermophoresis. For the porous medium, the Darcy model is employed. The effect of local thermal non-equilibrium among the particle, fluid, and solid-matrix phases is investigated using a three-temperature model. The analysis reveals that in some circumstances the effect of LTNE can be significant, but for a typical dilute nanofluid (with large Lewis number and with small particle-to-fluid heat capacity ratio) the effect is small.