Stability analysis of thermosolutal convection in a horizontal porous layer using a thermal non-equilibrium model

A stability analysis is carried out to investigate the onset of thermosolutal convection in a horizontal porous layer when the solid and fluid phases are not in a local thermal equilibrium, and the solubility of the dissolved component depends on temperature. To study how the reaction and thermal non-equilibrium affect the double-diffusive convection, the effects of scaled inter-phase heat transfer coefficient H and dimensionless reaction rate k on thermosolutal convection are discussed . The critical Rayleigh number and the corresponding wave number for the stability and overstability convections are obtained. Specially, asymptotic analysis for both small and large values of H and k is presented, and the corresponding asymptotic solutions are compared with numerical results. At last, a nonlinear stability analysis is presented to study how H and k affect the Nusselt number.     

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.     

Onset of Darcy–Brinkman Ferroconvection in a Rotating Porous Layer Using a Thermal Non-Equilibrium Model: A Nonlinear Stability Analysis

This article presents a nonlinear stability analysis of a rotating thermoconvective magnetized ferrofluid layer confined between stress-free boundaries using a thermal non-equilibrium model by the energy method. The effect of interface heat transfer coefficient ( H^￠){( {{\mathcal H}^{\prime}})}, magnetic parameter (M ₃), Darcy–Brinkman number ( [^(D)]a){( {\hat{{\rm D}}{\rm a}})}, and porosity modified conductivity ratio (γ′) on the onset of convection in the presence of rotation (T_A1){({T_{{\rm A}_1}})} have been analyzed. The critical Rayleigh numbers predicted by energy method are smaller than those calculated by linear stability analysis and thus indicate the possibility of existence of subcritical instability region for ferrofluids. However, for non-ferrofluids stability and instability boundaries coincide. Asymptotic analysis for both small and large values of interface heat transfer coefficient (H^￠){({{\mathcal H}^{\prime}})} is also presented. A good agreement is found between the exact solutions and asymptotic solutions.     

Stability of a fluid-saturated porous medium contained in a vertical cylinder heated from below by forced convection

A linear stability analysis determining the critical Rayleigh number R _c for onset of convection in a bounded vertical cylinder containing a fluid-saturated porous medium is performed for insulated sidewalls, isothermal top surface, and bottom surface heated by forced convection. This Newtonian heating of the bottom surface involves a Biot number Bi that allows consideration of the continuum of boundary conditions ranging from constant heat flux, with global minimum R _min=27.096 found as Bi→0, to isothermal, with global minimum R _min=4π² found as Bi→ ∞. In both cases and for most cylinder aspect ratios, incipient convection sets in as an asymmetric mode, though islands of aspect ratio exist where the onset mode is symmetric. Sample three-dimensional renderings of disturbance temperature distributions showing preferred modes at onset of convection for fixed Bi are provided and an analytical fit to R _min as a function of Bi is given.     

Double-diffusive convection for a heated cylinder submerged in a salt-stratified fluid layer

Double-diffusive convection due to a cylindrical source submerged in a salt-stratified solution is numerically investigated in this study. For proper simulation of the vortex generated around the cylinder, a computational domain with irregular shape is employed. Flow conditions depend strongly on the thermal Rayleigh number, Ra _T , and the buoyancy ratio, R _ρ. There are two types of onset of instability existing in the flow field. Both types are due to either the interaction of the upward temperature gradient and downward salinity gradient or the interaction of the lateral temperature gradient and downward salinity gradient. The onset of layer instability due to plume convection is due to the former, whereas, the onset of layer instability of layers around the cylinder is due to the latter. Both types can be found in the flow field. The transport mechanism of layers at the top of the basic plume belongs to former while that due to basic plume and layer around the cylinder are the latter. The increase in Ra _T reinforces the plume convection and reduces the layer numbers generated around the cylinder for the same buoyancy ratio. For the same Ra _T , the increase of R _ρ suppresses the plume convection but reinforces the layers generated around the cylinder. The profiles of local Nusselt number reflects the heat transfer characteristics of plume convection and layered structure. The profiles of averaged Nusselt number are between the pure conduction and natural convection modes and the variation is due to the evolution of layers. Received on 13 September 1996     

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).

     

Effect of rotation on ferromagnetic porous convection with a thermal non-equilibrium model

The effect of rotation on the onset of thermal convection in a horizontal layer of ferrofluid saturated Brinkman porous medium is investigated in the presence of a uniform vertical magnetic field using a local thermal non-equilibrium (LTNE) model. A two-field model for temperature representing the solid and fluid phases separately is used for energy equation. The condition for the occurrence of stationary and oscillatory convection is obtained analytically. The stability of the system has been analyzed when the magnetic and buoyancy forces are acting together as well as in isolation and the similarities as well as differences between the two are highlighted. In contrast to the non-rotating case, it is shown that decrease in the Darcy number Da and an increase in the ratio of effective viscosity to fluid viscosity Λ is to hasten the onset of stationary convection at high rotation rates and a coupling between these two parameters is identified in destabilizing the system. Asymptotic solutions for both small and large values of scaled interphase heat transfer coefficient H _t are presented and compared with those computed numerically. Besides, the influence of magnetic parameters and also parameters representing LTNE on the stability of the system is discussed and the veracity of LTNE model over the LTE model is also analyzed.     

Thermal convection in a porous layer: Effects of anisotropy and surface boundary conditions

The theory describing the onset of convection in a homogeneous porous layer bounded above and below by isothermal surfaces is extended to consider an upper boundary which is partly permeable. The general boundary condition p + λ ∂p/∂n = constant is applied at the top surface and the flow is investigated for various λ in the range 0 ⩽ λ < ∞. Estimates of the magnitude and horizontal distribution of the vertical mass and heat fluxes at the surface, the horizontally-averaged heat flux (Nusselt number) and the fraction of the fluid which recirculates within the layer are found for slightly supercritical conditions. Comparisons are made with the two limiting cases λ → ∞, where the surface is completely impermeable, and λ = 0, where the surface is at constant pressure. Also studied are the effects of anisotropy in permeability, ξ = K _H /K _V , and anisotropy is thermal conductivity, η = k _H /k _V , both parameters being ratios of horizontal to vertical quantities. Quantitative results are given for a wide variety of the parameters λ, ξ and η. In the limit ξ/η → 0 there is no recirculation, all fluid being converted out of the top surface, while in the limit ξ/η → ∞ there is full recirculation.     

Computation of conjugate heat transfer in the turbulent mixed convection regime in a vertical channel with multiple heat sources

This paper presents the results of a comprehensive numerical study to analyze conjugate, turbulent mixed convection heat transfer from a vertical channel with four heat sources, uniformly flush-mounted to one of the channel walls. The results are presented to study the effect of various parameters like thermal conductivity of wall material (k _s), thermal conductivity of flush-mounted discrete heat source (k _c), Reynolds number of fluid flow (Re _s), modified Richardson number (Ri ⁺) and aspect ratio (AR) of the channel. The standard k-ε turbulence model, modified by including buoyancy effects with physical boundary conditions, i.e. without wall functions, has been used for the analysis. Semi-staggered, non-uniform grids are used to discretise the two dimensional governing equations, using finite volume method. A correlation, encompassing a wide range of parameters, is developed for the non-dimensional maximum temperature (T ^*) using the asymptotic computational fluid dynamics (ACFD) technique.     

The Onset of Convection in an Anisotropic Porous Layer Using a Thermal Non-Equilibrium Model

The stability of a horizontal fluid saturated anisotropic porous layer heated from below and cooled from above is examined analytically when the solid and fluid phases are not in local thermal equilibrium. Darcy model with anisotropic permeability is employed to describe the flow and a two-field model is used for energy equation each representing the solid and fluid phases separately. The linear stability theory is implemented to compute the critical Rayleigh number and the corresponding wavenumber for the onset of convective motion. The effect of thermal non-equilibrium and anisotropy in both mechanical and thermal properties of the porous medium on the onset of convection is discussed. Besides, asymptotic analysis for both very small and large values of the interphase heat transfer coefficient is also presented. An excellent agreement is found between the exact and asymptotic solutions. Some known results, which correspond to thermal equilibrium and isotropic porous medium, are recovered in limiting cases.     

Unsteady natural convection in a liquid-saturated porous enclosure with local thermal non-equilibrium effect

Stability analysis of free convection in a liquid-saturated sparsely-packed porous medium with local-thermal-non-equilibrium (LTNE) effect is presented. For the vertical boundaries free–free, adiabatic and rigid–rigid, adiabatic are considered while for horizontal boundaries it is the stress-free, isothermal and rigid–rigid, isothermal boundary combinations we consider. From the linear theory, it is apparent that there is advanced onset of convection in a shallow enclosure followed by that in square and tall enclosures. Asymptotic analysis of the thermal Rayleigh number for small and large values of the inter-phase heat transfer coefficient is reported. Results of Darcy–Bénard convection (DBC) and Rayleigh–Bénard convection can be obtained as limiting cases of the study. LTNE effect is prominent in the case of Brinkman–Bénard convection compared to that in DBC. Using a multi-scale method and by performing a non-linear stability analysis the Ginzburg–Landau equation is derived from the five-mode Lorenz modal. Heat transport is estimated at the lower plate of the channel. The effect of the Brinkman number, the porous parameter and the inter-phase heat transfer coefficient is to favour delayed onset of convection and thereby enhanced heat transport while the porosity-modified ratio of thermal conductivities shows the opposite effect.

     

Stability of double-diffusive convection induced by selective absorption of radiation in a fluid layer

Linear and nonlinear stability analyses were performed on a fluid layer with a concentration-based internal heat source. Clear bimodal behaviour in the neutral curve (with stationary and oscillatory modes) is observed in the region of the onset of oscillatory convection, which is a previously unobserved phenomenon in radiation-induced convection. The numerical results for the linear instability analysis suggest a critical value γ _c of γ, a measure for the strength of the internal heat source, for which oscillatory convection is inhibited when γ > γ _c . Linear instability analyses on the effect of varying the ratio of the salt concentrations at the upper and lower boundaries conclude that the ratio has a significant effect on the stability boundary. A nonlinear analysis using an energy approach confirms that the linear theory describes the stability boundary most accurately when γ is such that the linear theory predicts the onset of mostly stationary convection. Nevertheless, the agreement between the linear and nonlinear stability thresholds deteriorates for larger values of the solute Rayleigh number for any value of γ.     

The onset of buoyancy-driven convection in a ferromagnetic fluid saturated porous medium

The onset of buoyancy-driven convection in an initially quiescent ferrofluid saturated horizontal porous layer in the presence of a uniform vertical magnetic field is investigated. The Brinkman-Lapwood extended Darcy equation with fluid viscosity different from effective viscosity is used to describe the flow in the porous medium. The lower boundary of the porous layer is assumed to be rigid-paramagnetic, while the upper paramagnetic boundary is considered to be either rigid or stress-free. The thermal conditions include fixed heat flux at the lower boundary, and a general convective–radiative exchange at the upper boundary, which encompasses fixed temperature and fixed heat flux as particular cases. The resulting eigenvalue problem is solved numerically using the Galerkin technique. It is found that increase in the Biot number Bi, porous parameter σ, viscosity ratio Λ, magnetic susceptibility χ, and decrease in the magnetic number M ₁ and non-linearity of magnetization M ₃ is to delay the onset of ferroconvection in a porous medium. Further, increase in M ₁, M ₃, and decrease in χ, Λ, σ and Bi is to decrease the size of convection cells.     

Variable permeability effect on convection in binary mixtures saturating a porous layer

The Darcy Model with the Boussinesq approximation is used to study natural convection in a shallow porous layer, with variable permeability, filled with a binary fluid. The permeability of the medium is assumed to vary exponentially with the depth of the layer. The two horizontal walls of the cavity are subject to constant fluxes of heat and solute while the two vertical ones are impermeable and adiabatic. The governing parameters for the problem are the thermal Rayleigh number, R _T, the Lewis number, Le, the buoyancy ratio, φ, the aspect ratio of the cavity, A, the normalized porosity, ε, the variable permeability constant, c, and parameter a defining double-diffusive convection (a = 0) or Soret induced convection (a = 1). For convection in an infinite layer, an analytical solution of the steady form of the governing equations is obtained on the basis of the parallel flow approximation. The onset of supercritical convection, or subcritical, convection are predicted by the present theory. A linear stability analysis of the parallel flow model is conducted and the critical Rayleigh number for the onset of Hopf’s bifurcation is predicted numerically. Numerical solutions of the full governing equations are found to be in excellent agreement with the analytical predictions.     

Onset of Convection in a Porous Rectangle with Buoyancy Along an Open Sidewall

The onset of thermal convection in a two-dimensional porous box is investigated analytically. One of the two lateral boundaries is in contact with a hydrostatic reservoir, where the saturating fluid can flow freely in and out. This open boundary is thermally insulating, but with the buoyancy of the fluid taken into account. For the second lateral wall, we study five different options for the boundary conditions. This leads to five different eigenvalue problems for the onset of convection. These five solutions are compared with the known solutions where the buoyancy along open sidewalls is neglected (Tyvand 2002).     

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.     

Thermal dispersion effects on non-Darcy natural convection with lateral mass flux

The method of similarity solution is used to study the influence of lateral mass flux and thermal dispersion on non-Darcy natural convection over a vertical flat plate in a fluid saturated porous medium. Forchheimer extension is considered in the flow equations and the coefficient of thermal diffusivity has been assumed to be the sum of molecular diffusivity and the dispersion thermal diffusivity due to mechanical dispersion. The suction/injection velocity distribution has been assumed to have power function form Ax ^l , where x is the distance from the leading edge and the wall temperature distribution is assumed to be uniform. When l=−1/2, similarity solution is possible, and the results indicate that the boundary layer thickness decreases where as the heat transfer rate increases as the mass flux parameter passes from injection domain to the suction domain. The increase in the thermal dispersion parameter is observed to enhance the heat transfer. The combined effect of thermal dispersion and fluid suction/injection on the heat transfer rate is discussed. Received on 9 September 1996     

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.     

Free convection from a vertical permeable circular cone with non-uniform surface heat flux

 In this paper, the problem of laminar free convection from a vertical permeable circular cone maintained with non-uniform surface heat flux is considered. The governing boundary layer equations are reduced non-similar boundary layer equations with surface heat flux proportional to x ⁿ (where x is the distance measured from the leading edge). The solutions of the reduced equations are obtained by using three distinct solution methodologies; namely, (i) perturbation solution for small transpiration parameter, ξ, (ii) asymptotic solution for large ξ, and (iii) the finite difference solutions for all ξ. The solutions are presented in terms of local skin-friction and local Nusselt number for smaller values of Prandtl number and heat flux gradient and are displayed in tabular form as well as graphically. Effects of pertinent parameters on velocity and temperature profiles are also shown graphically. Solutions obtained by finite difference method are also compared with the perturbation solutions for small and large ξ and found to be in excellent agreement. Received on 1 October 1999     

Natural convection from a vertical cylinder in a thermally stratified porous medium

The problem of non-Darcy natural convection adjacent to a vertical cylinder embedded in a thermally stratified porous medium has been analyzed. Nonsimilarity solutions are obtained for the case that the ambient temperature increases linearly with height of the cylinder. A generalized flow model was used in the present study to include the effects of the macroscopic viscous term and the microscopic inertial force. Also, the thermal dispersion effect is considered in the energy equation. Thus, the main aim of this work is to examine the effects of thermal stratification and non-Darcy flow phenomena on the free convection flow and heat transfer characteristics. It was found that the present problem depends on six parameters, namely, the local thermal stratification parameter ξ, the boundary effect parameter Bp, the modified Grashof number Gr^*, wall temperature exponent m, the curvature parameter ω, and the modified Rayleigh number based on pore diameter Ra _d . The impacts of these governing parameters on the local heat transfer parameter are discussed in great detail. Also, representative velocity and temperature profiles are presented at selected values of the thermal stratification parameter. In general, the local heat transfer parameter is increased with increasing the values of m, ω, and Ra _d ; while it is decreased with increasing the values of ξ, Bp, and Gr^*. Received on 19 May 1998