Combined Free and Forced Convection in Vertical Channels of Porous Media

In this paper we investigate the combined free and forced convection of a fully developed Newtonian fluid within a vertical channel composed of porous media when viscous dissipation effects are taken into consideration. The flow is analysed in the region of a first critical Rayleigh number in order to interpret the multiple-valued solutions and discuss their validity. The governing fourth-order, ordinary differential equation, which contains the Darcy and the viscous dissipation terms, is solved analytically using perturbation techniques and numerically using D02HBF NAG Library. A detailed investigation of the governing O.D.E. is performed on both clear fluid and porous medium for various values of the viscous dissipation parameter, , when the wall temperature decreases linearly with height, and the pressure gradient is both above and below its hydrostatic value. Although mathematically the results in all cases show that there are two solution branches, producing four possible solutions, the study of the velocity and buoyancy profiles together with the Darcy effect indicate that only one of the two solutions at any value of the Rayleigh number appears to be physically acceptable. It is shown that the effect of the Darcy number decreases as the critical Rayleigh numbers increase.     

多孔介质中的双稳热对流

对矩形横截面多孔介质中热对流的复杂分岔行为──二次分岔进行研究．使用Ｌｉａｐｕｎｏｖ－Ｓｃｈｍｉｄｔ约化并充分利用问题本身的对称性，研究了于最低的两个不同临界Ｒａｙｌｅｉｇｈ数处从平凡的静态传热解产生的热对流主分岔解之间的相互作用；揭示了主分岔解的二次分岔并给出了主分岔解及二次分岔解的渐近展开．稳定性分析表明从第二临界Ｒａｙｌｅｉｇｈ数产生的主分岔解经二次分岔后由不稳定变得稳定，从而与由最小临界Ｒａｙｌｅｉｇｈ数产生的主分岔解组成双稳定热对流．文中理论分析可较恰当地解释已有的数值模拟结果．     

多孔介质中热对流的分叉机理研究

本文利用解析分析方法研究了数值模拟发现的多孔介质层中出现的对流分叉机理，指出控制方程中的Ｒａｙｌｅｉｇｈ数，是决定流动的特征参数。当Ｒａｙｌｅｉｇｈ数小于临界数值时，多孔介质内流动处于静止传热状态，并且这种状态是稳定的。如果Ｒａｙｌｅｉｇｈ数大于临界数值，非线性方程出现分叉解，文中指出，存在多个使平凡解失稳而分叉的临界Ｒａｙｌｅｉｇｈ数，当Ｒａｙｌｅｉｇｈ数由小到大经历这些临界数值时，其由平凡解发展起来的分叉解的流态，依次由单回流区转变为双回流区及三回流区。理论分析给出了分叉解和分叉解的振幅方程，阐明了分叉的机理，其结论和数值结果定性一致．     

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.     

Effect of Inertial Terms on Fluid–Porous Medium Flow Coupling

The study considers an effect of the nonlinear inertial terms in the Brinkman filtration equation on the characteristics of coupled flows in a pure fluid and porous medium in the frameworks of two independent problems. The first problem is the forced boundary-layer flow overlying the Darcy–Brinkman porous medium. The Prandtl theory is used, and the self-similar equations are built to describe it. It is shown that the inertial terms have a valuable effect on the boundary-layer structure because of the large velocity gradient in the transition zone. The boundary-layer thickness in a porous medium rapidly grows at large Reynolds numbers. The velocity magnitude and gradient at the interface also change. The second independent problem is an analysis of the inertial terms effect on the flow stability. The neutral curves of the full and linearized flow models are built using the shooting method. They have different short-wave asymptotic, but there are no significant changes in the critical Reynolds numbers and corresponding wave numbers.     

Rayleigh–Benard convection subject to time dependent wall temperature/gravity in a fluid-saturated anisotropic porous medium

 The effect of time-periodic temperature/gravity modulation at the onset of convection in a Boussinesq fluid-saturated anisotropic porous medium is investigated by making a linear stability analysis. Brinkman flow model with effective viscosity larger than the viscosity of the fluid is considered to give a more general theoretical result. The perturbation method is applied for computing the critical Rayleigh and wave numbers for small amplitude temperature/gravity modulation. The shift in the critical Rayleigh number is calculated as a function of frequency of the modulation, viscosity ratio, anisotropy parameter and porous parameter. We have shown that it is possible to advance or delay the onset of convection by time-periodic modulation of the wall temperature and to advance convection by gravity modulation. It is also shown that the small anisotropy parameter has a strong influence on the stability of the system. The effect of viscosity ratio, anisotropy parameter, the porous parameter and the Prandtl number is discussed. Received on 28 July 2000 / Published online: 29 November 2001     

Natural convection flow with solidification between two vertical plates filled with a porous medium

Quasi-steady solidification between two vertical flat plates filled with a saturated porous medium has been investigated. The medium is homogeneous and isotropic. The convection flow of liquid takes place in the porous medium in the variable space between the two walls. One of the vertical walls is set to a temperature lower than the solidification temperature of the medium and therefore a frozen crust is formed on this wall. The second wall has a high temperature then the fusion temperature of the medium. The problem has been simplified by assuming laminar flow and the Brinkman and the Oberbeck–Bousinesq’s approximations. The results are presented in terms of the velocity for different properties of the porous medium. Various velocities are displayed in dependence of the Rayleigh and Darcy numbers. The study indicates that asymmetric boundary conditions have an important effect on the temperature and flow field. In addition, the growth of the thickness of the frozen layer with time has been derived from a simple analytical solution of the interface energy equation.     

Convective Instability in Slip Flow in a Vertical Circular Porous Microchannel

The paper represents an analysis of convective instability in a vertical cylindrical porous microchannel performed using the Galerkin method. The dependence of the critical Rayleigh number on the Darcy, Knudsen, and Prandtl numbers, as well as on the ratio of the thermal conductivities of the fluid and the wall, was obtained. It was shown that a decrease in permeability of the porous medium (in other words, increase in its porosity) causes an increase in flow stability. This effect is substantially nonlinear. Under the condition Da?>?0.1, the effect of the porosity on the critical Rayleigh number practically vanishes. Strengthening of the slippage effects leads to an increase in the instability of the entire system. The slippage effect on the critical Rayleigh number is nonlinear. The level of nonlinearity depends on the Prandtl number. With an increase in the Prandtl number, the effect of slippage on the onset of convection weakens. With an increase in the ratio of the thermal conductivities of the fluid and the wall, the influence of the Prandtl number decreases. At high values of the Prandtl numbers (Pr?>?10), its influence practically vanishes.

     

Stability of Flow with Viscous Dissipation in a Horizontal Porous Layer with an Open Boundary Having a Prescribed Temperature Gradient

A buoyancy-induced stationary flow with viscous dissipation in a horizontal porous layer is investigated. The lower boundary surface is impermeable and subject to a uniform heat flux. The upper open boundary has a prescribed, linearly varying, temperature distribution. The buoyancy-induced basic velocity profile is parallel and non-uniform. The linear stability of this basic solution is analysed numerically by solving the disturbance equations for oblique rolls arbitrarily oriented with respect to the basic velocity field. The onset conditions of thermal instability are governed by the Rayleigh number associated with the prescribed wall heat flux at the lower boundary, by the horizontal Rayleigh number associated with the imposed temperature gradient on the upper open boundary, and by the Gebhart number associated with the effect of viscous dissipation. The critical value of the Rayleigh number for the onset of the thermal instability is evaluated as a function of the horizontal Rayleigh number and of the Gebhart number. It is shown that the longitudinal rolls, having axis parallel to the basic velocity, are the most unstable in all the cases examined. Moreover, the imposed horizontal temperature gradient tends to stabilise the basic flow, while the viscous dissipation turns out to have a destabilising effect.     

Linear Stability of the Double-Diffusive Convection in a Horizontal Porous Layer with Open Top: Soret and Viscous Dissipation Effects

The linear stability of the double-diffusive convection in a horizontal porous layer is studied considering the upper boundary to be open. A horizontal temperature gradient is applied along the upper boundary. It is assumed that the viscous dissipation and Soret effect are significant in the medium. The governing parameters are horizontal Rayleigh number (\(Ra_\mathrm{H}\)), solutal Rayleigh number (\(Ra_\mathrm{S}\)), Lewis number (Le), Gebhart number (Ge) and Soret parameter (Sr). The Rayleigh number (Ra) corresponding to the applied heat flux at the bottom boundary is considered as the eigenvalue. The influence of the solutal gradient caused due to the thermal diffusion on the double-diffusive instability is investigated by varying the Soret parameter. A horizontal basic flow is induced by the applied horizontal temperature gradient. The stability of this basic flow is analyzed by calculating the critical Rayleigh number (\(Ra_\mathrm{cr}\)) using the Runge–Kutta scheme accompanied by the Shooting method. The longitudinal rolls are more unstable except for some special cases. The Soret parameter has a significant effect on the stability of the flow when the upper boundary is at constant pressure. The critical Rayleigh number is decreasing in the presence of viscous dissipation except for some positive values of the Soret parameter. How a change in Soret parameter is attributing to the convective rolls is presented.     

Instability of Hadley–Prats Flow with Viscous Heating in a Horizontal Porous Layer

The onset of convective rolls instability in a horizontal porous layer subject to a basic temperature gradient inclined with respect to gravity is investigated. The basic velocity has a linear profile with a non-vanishing mass flow rate, i.e., it is the superposition of a Hadley-type flow and a uniform flow. The influence of the viscous heating contribution on the critical conditions for the onset of the instability is assessed. There are four governing parameters: a horizontal Rayleigh number and a vertical Rayleigh number defining the intensity of the inclined temperature gradient, a Péclet number associated with the basic horizontal flow rate, and a Gebhart number associated with the viscous dissipation effect. The critical wave number and the critical vertical Rayleigh number are evaluated for assigned values of the horizontal Rayleigh number, of the Péclet number, and of the Gebhart number. The linear stability analysis is performed with reference either to transverse or to longitudinal roll disturbances. It is shown that generally the longitudinal rolls represent the preferred mode of instability.     

Convective Stability in a Rectangular Box of Fluid-Saturated Porous Medium with Constant Pressure Top and Constant Flux Bottom Heating

A fluid-saturated porous medium in a rectangular box is heated from below by constant flux. The top is open at constant pressure and the sides are insulated. Linear free convection stability analysis yields a complicated characteristic equation. It is found that the critical Rayleigh number and the incipient mode are sensitive to the dimensions of the box.     

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.     

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.     

The Onset and Nonlinear Regimes of Convection in a Two-Layer System of Fluid and Porous Medium Saturated by the Fluid

The onset of convection and its nonlinear regimes in a heated from below two-layer system consisting of a horizontal pure fluid layer and porous medium saturated by the same fluid is studied under the conditions of static gravitational field. The problem is solved numerically by the finite-difference method. The competition between the long-wave and short-wave convective modes at various ratios of the porous layer to the fluid layer thicknesses is analyzed. The data on the nature of convective motion excitation and flow structure transformation are obtained for the range of the Rayleigh numbers up to quintuple supercriticality. It has been found that in the case of a thick porous layer the steady-state convective regime occurring after the establishment of the mechanical equilibrium becomes unstable and gives way to the oscillatory regime at some value of the Rayleigh number. As the Rayleigh number grows further the oscillatory regime of convection is again replaced by the steady-state convective regime.     

Investigations on the validity of Boussinesq approximation on free convection in vertical porous annulus

Validity of the Boussinesq approximation on free convective heat transfer in fluid filled porous annulus has been examined considering fluid density to be variable in all the conservation equations. The variable fluid density is characterized by a density difference ratio. Numerical solutions have been obtained using successive accelerated replacement scheme. Numerical results obtained for a wide range of Rayleigh numbers, aspect ratio, radius ratio and density difference ratio show that, relaxing the Boussinesq approximation, leads to insignificant changes in the average Nusselt number when the porous medium is filled with a liquid. However, for a gas filled porous medium, owing to a relatively large change in the density, change in the average Nusselt number is significant. For example, the change in the average Nusselt number is as high as 17% at a Rayleigh number of 300, when the aspect ratio is 5, radius ratio is 5 and the density difference ratio is 0.5.     

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.     

Fully Developed Mixed Convection Flow in a Vertical Channel Containing Porous and Fluid Layer with Isothermal or Isoflux Boundaries

An analysis of fully developed combined free and forced convective flow in a fluid saturated porous medium channel bounded by two vertical parallel plates is presented. The flow is modeled using Brinkman equation model. The viscous and Darcy dissipation terms are also included in the energy equation. Three types of thermal boundary conditions such as isothermal–isothermal, isoflux–isothermal, and isothermal–isoflux for the left–right walls of the channel are considered. Analytical solutions for the governing ordinary differential equations are obtained by perturbation series method. In addition, closed form expressions for the Nusselt number at both the left and right channel walls are derived. Results have been presented for a wide range of governing parameters such as porous parameter, ratio of Grashof number and Reynolds number, viscosity ratio, width ratio, and conductivity ratio on velocity, and temperature fields. It is found that the presence of porous matrix in one of the region reduces the velocity and temperature.     

Some nonlinear problems of groundwater flow through a porous medium

Self-similar solutions of the equation of groundwater gravity flow through a porous medium are given. The water flows from a basin into an underground permeable reservoir bounded from below by an impervious bed. A periodic problem of flow through a porous medium in which the water level in the basin periodically oscillates is considered. It is shown that in this case the water table elevation effect, i.e., water pumping into the aquifer, develops at a sufficient distance from the littoral zone. The invariant-group solutions of the problem of flow through a porous medium are investigated with allowance for evaporation from the groundwater surface.     

Numerical convergence studies of the mixed finite element method for natural convection flow in a fluid-saturated porous medium

This paper describes a numerical approximation scheme for the natural convection (NC) flow in a fluid-saturated porous medium. Our formulation of the problem is based on the mixed finite element method (FEM). Using the so-called consistent splitting scheme, a second-order accuracy in time and in space is verified by the numerical calculation. The resulting flow patterns and heat transfer for different Rayleigh numbers, Darcy numbers and porosities are numerically studied by the proposed scheme.