Onset of Buoyancy-driven Instability in Porous Media Melted from Below

When a nonhomogeneous solid is melting from below, convection may be induced in a thermally–unstable melt layer. In this study, the onset of buoyancy-driven convection during time-dependent melting is investigated by using similarly transformed disturbance equations. The critical Darcy–Rayleigh numbers based on the melt-layer thickness, Ra _H,c, are found numerically for various conditions. For small superheats, the present predictions show that Ra _H,c is located between 27.1 and 4π ² and it approaches the well-known results of the original Horton–Rogers–Lapwood problem. However, for high superheats, it is dependent on the phase change rate λ and the relation of Ra _H,c λ = 25.89 is shown.