The onset of thermo-bioconvection in a shallow fluid saturated porous layer heated from below in a suspension of oxytactic microorganisms

The aim of this paper is to present a continuum model for thermo-bioconvection of oxytactic bacteria in a porous medium and investigate the combined effects of microorganisms' upswimming and heating from below on the stability of bioconvection in a horizontal layer filled with a fluid saturated porous medium. Different from traditional bioconvection, thermo-bioconvection has two destabilizing mechanisms that contribute to creating the unstable density stratification. This problem may be relevant to a number of geophysical applications, such as the investigation of the dynamics of oxytactic species of thermophiles (heat loving microorganisms) living in hot springs, microbial-enhanced oil recovery, and modeling oil- and gas-bearing sedimentary basins. The utilization of the Galerkin method to solve a linear stability problem leads to a correlation between the critical value of the bioconvection Rayleigh number and the traditional “thermal” Rayleigh number.     

Overstability Analysis of Thermo-bioconvection Saturating a Porous Medium in a Suspension of Gyrotactic Microorganisms

A linear stability analysis is performed to analyze bioconvection in a dilute suspension of gyrotactic microorganisms in horizontal shallow fluid layer cooling from below and saturated by a porous medium, in the rigid boundary case. It is established that due to cooling from below thermally stratified layer is stabilized, which opposes the development of bioconvection and the situations for oscillatory convection may take place. The stability criterion is obtained in terms of thermal Rayleigh number, bioconvection Rayleigh number, gyrotactic number, bioconvection Peclet number, measure of cell eccentricity, Prandtl number, and Lewis number. It is observed that the presence of porous medium results in decrease of the magnitude of critical bioconvection Rayleigh number in comparison with its non-existence; hence due to porous effect, the system becomes less stable.     

Investigation of the onset of thermo-bioconvection in a suspension of oxytactic microorganisms in a shallow fluid layer heated from below

This paper investigates the combined effect of density stratification due to oxytactic upswimming and heating from below on the stability of a suspension of motile oxytactic microorganisms in a shallow fluid layer. Different from traditional bioconvection, thermo-bioconvection has two destabilizing mechanisms that contribute to creating the unstable density stratification. This problem may be relevant to a number of geophysical applications, such as the investigation of the dynamics of some species of thermophiles (heat loving microorganisms) living in hot springs. By performing a linear stability analysis, we obtained a correlation between the critical value of the bioconvection Rayleigh number and the traditional, “thermal” Rayleigh number. It is established that heating from below makes the system more unstable and helps the development of bioconvection.     

Laminar MHD natural convection of nanofluid containing gyrotactic microorganisms over vertical wavy surface saturated non-Darcian porous media

Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) bioconvection of an incompressible electrically conducting nanofluid near a vertical wavy surface saturated porous medium containing both nanoparticle and gyrotactic microorganisms is investigated. The nanofluid is represented by a model that includes both Brownian motion and thermophoresis effects. A suitable set of non-dimensional variables are used to transform the governing boundary layer equations into a dimensionless form. The resulting nonlinear system is mapped to the vertical flat plate domain, and a non-similar solution is used to the obtained equations. The obtained non-similar system is then solved numerically using the fourth-order Runge-Kutta method. The influence of various physical parameters on the local Nusselt number, the local Sherwood number, the local density number of the motile microorganisms, the dimensionless velocity, the dimensionless temperature, and the rescaled density of motile microorganisms is studied. It is found that the local Nusselt number, the local Sherwood number, and the local density number of the motile microorganisms decrease by increasing either the Grashof number or the magnetic field parameter.     

The Onset of Bioconvection in a Horizontal Porous-Medium Layer

In this note the problem of the onset of bioconvection in a horizontal layer occupied by a saturated porous medium is analyzed. Gyrotactic effects are incorporated in the analysis. The Darcy flow model is employed, and it is assumed that the bioconvection Péclet number is not greater than unity. Critical values of the bioconvection Rayleigh number and the corresponding critical Rayleigh number are obtained for various values of the bioconvection Péclet number, the gyrotaxis number and the cell eccentricity.     

The Onset of Convection in a Suspension of Gyrotactic Microorganisms in Superimposed Fluid and Porous Layers: Effect of Vertical Throughflow

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of vertical throughflow on the onset of bioconvection in a suspension of gyrotactic microorganisms. A dilute suspension of gyrotactic microorganisms in a shallow system that consists of superimposed fluid and porous layers is considered. A linear instability analysis of this problem is performed and the Galerkin method is utilized to solve the eigenvalue problem. The analysis leads to an equation for the critical Rayleigh number. It is shown that the vertical throughflow stabilizes the system.     

Free Convection of Non-Newtonian Nanofluids in Porous media with Gyrotactic Microorganisms

The free convection of non-Newtonian nanofluids along a vertical plate in porous medium is investigated numerically. It is assumed that the medium contains gyrotactic microorganisms along with nanoparticles and the plate is subjected to prescribed temperature, concentration of nanoparticles and density of motile microorganisms. It is further assumed that the plate is impermeable. The governing partial differential equations are reduced to nonlinear ordinary differential equations using similarity transformations. The nonlinear ordinary differential equations are then solved by a finite difference numerical method. The effects of controlling parameters on several dimensionless quantities and numbers of our interest are investigated. The numerical results are compared with the published data and an excellent agreement has been found. It is found that nanofluid and bioconvection parameters have strong effects on local Nusselt, Sherwood and density numbers.     

On Temporal Stability Analysis for Hydromagnetic Flow in a Channel Filled with a Saturated Porous Medium

In this paper, a linear stability analysis is presented to trace the time evolution of an infinitesimal, two-dimensional disturbance imposed on the base flow of an electrically conducting fluid in a channel filled with a saturated porous medium under the influence of a transversely imposed magnetic field. An eigenvalue problem is obtained and solved numerically using the Chebyshev collocation spectral method. The critical Reynolds number Re _c, the critical wave number α _c and the critical wave speed c _c are obtained for a wide range of the porous medium shape factor parameter S and Hartmann number H. It is found that an increase in the magnetic field intensity and a decrease in porous medium permeability have a stabilizing effect on the fluid flow.     

On the Chebyshev collocation spectral approach to stability of fluid flow in a porous medium

In this paper, the temporal development of small disturbances in a pressure‐driven fluid flow through a channel filled with a saturated porous medium is investigated. The Brinkman flow model is employed in order to obtain the basic flow velocity distribution. Under normal mode assumption, the linearized governing equations for disturbances yield a fourth‐order eigenvalue problem, which reduces to the well‐known Orr–Sommerfeld equation in some limiting cases solved numerically by a spectral collocation technique with expansions in Chebyshev polynomials. The critical Reynolds number Re_c, the critical wave number α_c, and the critical wave speed c_c are obtained for a wide range of the porous medium shape factor parameter S. It is found that a decrease in porous medium permeability has a stabilizing effect on the fluid flow. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Thermo-Bioconvection in a Square Porous Cavity Filled by Oxytactic Microorganisms

This paper studies the thermo-bioconvection in a square porous cavity filled by oxytactic microorganisms. The Darcy model with Boussinesq approximation has been used to solve the flow and heat and mass transfer in the porous region. The governing equations formulated in terms of the dimensionless stream function, temperature and concentration have been solved using the finite difference method. Comparison with results from the open literature of the mean Nusselt number for a square cavity filled with a regular porous medium is made. It is shown that the results are in very good agreement. The main objective was to investigate the influence of the traditional Rayleigh number Ra = 10, 100, bioconvection Rayleigh number Rb = 10, 100, Lewis number Le = 1, 10, and Péclet number Pe = 0.1, 1 on the fluid flow and heat and mass transfer. Comprehensive analysis of an effect of these key parameters on the Nusselt and Sherwood numbers at the vertical walls has been conducted.     

Instability Analysis of Gyrotactic Microorganisms: A Combined Effect of High-Frequency Vertical Vibration and Porous Media

A linear stability analysis is carried out to predict the instability analysis in a dilute suspension of gyrotactic microorganisms in horizontal fluid-saturated porous layer influenced by high-frequency vertical vibration. The governing equations, describing the mean flow, are the time-averaged Boussinesq equations and the analytical solution of the problem has been obtained using Galerkin method. A secular relation involving bioconvection Rayleigh number and its vibrational analogs and other parameters have been established. The graphical interpretations for dependence of bioconvection Rayleigh–Darcy number and corresponding wave number, on gyrotactic number and bioconvection Péclet number in the presence of vibration are utilized to understand the problem.     

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.     

Linear Instability Analysis of a Suspension of Oxytactic Bacteria in Superimposed Fluid and Porous Layers

The purpose of this paper is to perform a pioneering investigation of the stability of bioconvection of oxytactic bacteria in superimposed fluid and porous layers. A dilute suspension of oxytactic bacteria in a shallow system that consists of superimposed fluid and porous layers is considered. A linear instability analysis of this problem is performed and the Galerkin method is utilized to solve the eigenvalue problem. The analysis leads to an equation for the critical Rayleigh number.*Author for correspondence: Tel.: +1-919-515-5292; Fax: +1-919-515-7968; e-mail: avkuznet@eos.ncsu.edu     

Dynamics of large solid particles in bioconvective sedimentation

Settling of one or two large solid particles in a bioconvection flow induced by gyrotactic motile microorganisms is investigated using a 2D numerical model. The results of varying the initial positions of large particles on the bioconvection flow pattern are investigated. The Chimera method is utilized to generate subgrids around the moving particles. It is demonstrated that the introduction of a single large particle displaces bioconvection plume and changes its shape. The introduction of two particles on the same side of the bioconvection plume further displaces the plume while the introduction of two particles on opposite sides reduces this displacement. The influence of the bioconvection plume on the particles' settling paths and particles' settling velocities is investigated. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Stability of viscous flow in a rotating porous medium in the form of an annulus: The small-gap problem

The paper deals with the linear stability analysis of laminar flow of a viscous fluid in a rotating porous medium in the form of an annulus bounded by two concentric circular impermeable cylinders. The usual no-slip condition is imposed at both the boundaries. The resulting sixth order boundary value, eigenvalue problem has been solved numerically for the small-gap case by the Runge-Kutta-Gill method, assuming that the marginal state is stationary. The results of computation reveal that the critical Taylor number increases with decreasing permeability of the medium. The problem is found to reduce to the case of ordinary viscous flow in the annulus obtained by Chandrasekhar,¹ when the permeability parameter tends to zero.     

A Simple Model for the Variation of Permeability due to Partial Saturation in Dual Scale Porous Media

The main focus of this work is to model macroscopically the effects of partial saturation upon the permeability of dual scale fibrous media made of fiber bundles when a Newtonian viscous fluid impregnates it. A new phenomenological model is proposed to explain the discrepancies between experimental pressure results and analytical predictions based on Darcy's law. This model incorporates the essential features of relative permeability but without the necessity of measuring saturation of the liquid for its prediction. The model is very relevant for the small scale industrial systems where a liquid is forced to flow through a fibrous porous medium. It requires four parameters. Two of them are the two permeability values based on the two length scales. One length scale is of the order of magnitude of the individual fiber radius and corresponds to the permeability of the completely staurated medium, the other is of the order of magnitude of the distance between the fiber bundles and corresponds to the permeability of the partially saturated medium. The other two parameters are the lengths of the two partially saturated regions of the flow domain. The two lengths of the partially saturated region and the permeability of the fully saturated flow domain can be directly measured from the experiments. The excellent agreement between the model and the experimental results of inlet pressure profile with respect to time suggests that this model may be used to describe the variation of the permeability behind a moving front in such porous media for correct pressure prediction. It may also be used to characterize the fibrous medium by determining the two different permeabilities and the relative importance of the unsaturated portion of the flow domain for a given architecture.     

An Experimental Method for One Dimensional Permeability Characterization of Heterogeneous Porous Media at the Core Scale

Many reservoir simulator inputs are derived from laboratory experiments. Special core analysis techniques generally assume that core samples are homogeneous. This assumption does not hold for porous media with significant heterogeneities. This paper presents a new method to characterize core scale permeability heterogeneity. The method is validated by both numerical and experimental results. The leading idea consists in injecting a high viscosity miscible fluid into a core sample saturated with a low viscosity fluid. In such conditions, the fluid displacement is expected to be piston-like. We investigate the evolution of the pressure drop as a function of time. A continuous permeability profile is estimated along flow direction from the pressure drop assuming that the core sample is a stack of infinitely thin cross sections perpendicular to flow direction. Thus, we determine a permeability value for each cross section. Numerical and laboratory experiments are carried out to validate the method. Flow simulations are performed for numerical models representing core samples to estimate the pressure drop. The selected models are sequences of plugs with constant permeabilities. In addition, laboratory displacements are conducted for both low permeability and high permeability core samples. To investigate whether there is dispersion inside the porous medium, CT scan measurements are performed during fluid displacement: the location of the front is observed at successive time intervals. The results validate the methodology developed in this paper as long as heterogeneity is one dimensional.     

Stability of Thermal Convection in a Fluid-Porous System Saturated with an Oldroyd-B Fluid Heated from Below

A linear stability analysis is conducted for thermal convection in a two-layer system composed of a fluid layer overlying a porous medium saturated with an Oldroyd-B fluid heated from below. It is found that the convection pattern in the system is controlled by the porous medium when the ratio of the depth of the fluid layer to that of the porous medium is small. However, the fluid layer takes a predominant role if the depth ratio exceeds a critical value. Compared with stationary convection, the switching point from a porous-dominated mode to a fluid-dominated mode for oscillatory convection is located at a lower depth ratio. The effects of different parameters on stationary convection and oscillatory convection are also investigated in detail.     

Effect of variable viscosity on non-Darcy free or mixed convection flow on a vertical surface in a fluid saturated porous medium

This paper analyzes the variable viscosity effects on non-Darcy free or mixed convection flow on a vertical surface in a fluid saturated porous medium. The viscosity of the fluid is assumed to be a inverse linear function of temperature. Velocity and heat transfer are found to be significantly affected by the variable viscosity parameter, Ergun number, Peclet number or Rayleigh number.     

Effects of Medium Permeability Anisotropy on Chemical-Dissolution Front Instability in Fluid-Saturated Porous Media

This paper deals with the theoretical aspects of chemical-dissolution front instability problems in two-dimensional fluid-saturated porous media including medium anisotropic effects. Since a general anisotropic medium can be described as an orthotropic medium in the corresponding principal directions, a two-dimensional orthotropic porous medium is considered to derive the analytical solution for the critical condition, which is used to judge whether or not the chemical dissolution front can become unstable during its propagation. In the case of the mineral dissolution ratio (that is defined as the ratio of the dissolved-mineral equilibrium concentration in the pore-fluid to the molar concentration of the dissolvable mineral in the solid matrix of the fluid-saturated porous medium) approaching zero, the corresponding critical condition has been mathematically derived when medium permeability anisotropic effects are considered. As a complementary tool, the computational simulation method is used to simulate the morphological evolution of chemical dissolution fronts in two-dimensional fluid-saturated porous media including medium anisotropic effects. The related theoretical and numerical results demonstrated that: (1) a decrease in the medium anisotropic permeability factor (or ratio), which is defined as the ratio of the principal permeability in the transversal direction to that in the longitudinal direction parallel to the pore-fluid inflow direction, can stabilize the chemical dissolution front so that it becomes more difficult for a planar chemical-dissolution front to evolve into different morphologies in the chemical dissolution system; (2) the medium anisotropic permeability ratio can have significant effects on the morphological evolution of the chemical dissolution front. When the Zhao number of the chemical dissolution system is greater than its critical value, the greater the medium anisotropic permeability ratio, the faster the irregular chemical-dissolution front grows.