Stability of a nonuniformly heated fluid in a porous horizontal layer

Abstract

We investigate the stability of a nonuniformly heated fluid in the gravitational field in a plane horizontal porous layer through which vertical forced motion is effected. A similar system was studied in [1, 2]. In the present paper, the nonuniformity of the permeability of the porous layer with respect to the depth and the dependence of the viscosity of the saturating fluid on the temperature are taken into account in addition. As a result of the application of the linear stability theory, an eigenvalue problem arises, which is solved numerically. A family of curves representing the dependence of the critical modified Rayleigh number Ra ^⋆_k on the injection parameter (the Péclet number Pe) for different degrees of inhomogeneity of the permeability and the viscosity is obtained. It is found that although Pe=0 corresponds to Ra ^⋆_k for uniform permeability and viscosity and the stability increases monotonically as Pe increases, the presence of nonuniformity of the permeability or the viscosity leads to the appearance of a stability minimum in the region Pe≈1, while under the simultaneous influence of these two factors, the minimum is shifted into the region Pe≈2. The results of the paper can be used, for example, in the investigation of heat transfer in the case of forced fluid motion in the fissures of a permeable rock mass, when, in the case of pumping through a horizontal fissure, the fluid penetrates vertically across its permeable walls into the stratum.