On the stability of natural convection in a porous vertical slab saturated with an Oldroyd-B fluid

The stability of the conduction regime of natural convection in a porous vertical slab saturated with an Oldroyd-B fluid has been studied. A modified Darcy�s law is utilized to describe the flow in a porous medium. The eigenvalue problem is solved using Chebyshev collocation method and the critical Darcy�Rayleigh number with respect to the wave number is extracted for different values of physical parameters. Despite the basic state being the same for Newtonian and Oldroyd-B fluids, it is observed that the basic flow is unstable for viscoelastic fluids�a result of contrast compared to Newtonian as well as for power-law fluids. It is found that the viscoelasticity parameters exhibit both stabilizing and destabilizing influence on the system. Increase in the value of strain retardation parameter � 2 portrays stabilizing influence on the system while increasing stress relaxation parameter � 1 displays an opposite trend. Also, the effect of increasing ratio of heat capacities is to delay the onset of instability. The results for Maxwell fluid obtained as a particular case from the present study indicate that the system is more unstable compared to Oldroyd-B fluid. © 2016, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

Non-darcian Effects on Double Diffusive Convection in a Sparsely Packed Porous Medium

The linear and non-linear stability of double diffusive convection in a sparsely packed porous layer is studied using the Brinkman model. In the case of linear theory conditions for both simple and Hopf bifurcations are obtained. It is found that Hopf bifurcation always occurs at a lower value of the Rayleigh number than one obtained for simple bifurcation and noted that an increase in the value of viscosity ratio is to delay the onset of convection. Non-linear theory is studied in terms of a simplified model, which is exact to second order in the amplitude of the motion, and also using modified perturbation theory with the help of self-adjoint operator technique. It is observed that steady solutions may be either subcritical or supercritical depending on the choice of physical parameters. Nusselt numbers are calculated for various values of physical parameters and representative streamlines, isotherms and isohalines are presented

Effects of quadratic drag and throughflow on double diffusive convection in a porous layer

The linear stability theory is used to investigate analytically the effects of quadratic drag and vertical throughflow on double diffusive convection in a horizontal porous layer using the Forchheimer-extended Darcy equation. The boundaries of the porous layer are considered to be either impermeable or porous, but perfect conductors of heat and solute concentration. Conditions for the occurrence of stationary and oscillatory convection are obtained using the Rayleigh-Ritz method. Stability boundaries are drawn in the Rayleigh numbers plane and the throughflow is found to influence the mode of instability. It is found that, irrespective of the nature of boundaries, a small amount of throughflow in either of its direction destabilizes the system; a result which is in contrast to the single component system. © 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Effects of Coriolis force and different basic temperature gradients on Marangoni ferroconvection

The effect of Coriolis force and different forms of basic temperature gradients on the onset of Marangoni ferroconvection in a horizontal layer of ferrofluid is investigated theoretically. The lower boundary is assumed to be rigid-isothermal, while the upper free boundary on which the surface tension acts is non-deformable and insulating to temperature perturbations. The Galerkin technique is used to obtain the critical stability parameters. It is shown that convection sets in as oscillatory motions provided that the Prandtl number is less than unity. A mechanism for suppressing or augmenting Marangoni ferroconvection by rotation, nonlinearity of magnetization and different forms of basic temperature gradients is discussed in detail. It is found that the inverted parabolic temperature profile indicates a reinforcement of stability, whereas the step function temperature profile indicates a diminution of stability. Comparisons of results between the present and the existing ones are made under the limiting conditions and good agreement is found

Effect of Cubic Temperature Profiles on Ferro Convection in a Brinkman Porous Medium

The effect of cubic temperature profiles on the onset ferroconvection in a Brinkman porous medium in presence of a uniform vertical magnetic field is studied. The lower and upper boundaries are taken to be rigid-isothermal and ferromagnetic. The Rayleigh-Ritz method with Chebyshev polynomials of the second kind as trial functions is employed to extract the critical stability parameters numerically. The results indicate that the stability of ferroconvection is significantly affected by cubic temperature profiles and the mechanism for suppressing or augmenting the same is discussed in detail. It is observed that the effect of Darcy number magnetic number and nonlinearity of the fluid magnetization parameter is to hasten, while an increase in the ratio of viscosity parameter and Biot number is to delay the onset of ferroconvection in a Brinkman porous medium. Further, increase in and decrease in is to decrease the size of the convection cells

Impact of Thermal Non-Equilibrium on Weak Nonlinear Rotating Porous Convection

The consequences of local thermal non-equilibrium (LTNE) on both stationary and oscillatory weak nonlinear stability of gravity-driven porous convection in an incompressible fluid-saturated rotating porous layer are investigated. A stability map is drawn in the Darcy–Taylor and scaled Vadasz number plane to demarcate the regions of stationary and oscillatory convection, and thereby, co-dimension-2 points are determined. It is found that the effect of increasing interphase heat transfer coefficient is to enhance the region of stationary convection and decrease the region of oscillatory convection. The complex Ginzburg–Landau equations are derived using the multi-scale method, and pitchfork and Hopf bifurcations occur at stationary and oscillatory critical Darcy–Rayleigh numbers, respectively. The linear and nonlinear oscillatory neutral curves are illustrated, and at the quartic point, the transition from supercritical to subcritical bifurcations is identified for the governing parameters. The impact of LTNE model is to enhance the region of forward bifurcation and post-transient amplitude compared to LTE case. Heat transfer is obtained in terms of Nusselt number for both stationary and oscillatory convection. The region of enhancement in heat flux for oscillatory convection in the smaller scaled Vadasz number domain with increasing Darcy–Taylor number increases with increasing interphase heat transfer coefficient and the porosity-modified conductivity ratio

Effect of Local Thermal Nonequilibrium on the Stability of Natural Convection in an Oldroyd-B Fluid Saturated Vertical Porous Layer

The effect of local thermal nonequilibrium (LTNE) on the stability of natural convection in a vertical porous slab saturated by an Oldroyd-B fluid is investigated. The vertical walls of the slab are impermeable and maintained at constant but different temperatures. A two-field model that represents the fluid and solid phase temperature fields separately is used for heat transport equation. The resulting stability eigenvalue problem is solved numerically using Chebyshev collocation method as the energy stability analysis becomes ineffective in deciding the stability of the system. Despite the basic state remains the same for Newtonian and viscoelastic fluids, it is observed that the base flow is unstable for viscoelastic fluids and this result is qualitatively different from Newtonian fluids. The results for Maxwell fluid are delineated as a particular case from the present study. It is found that the viscoelasticity has both stabilizing and destabilizing influence on the flow. Increase in the value of interphase heat transfer coefficient Ht, strain retardation parameter �v and diffusivity ratio α portray stabilizing influence on the system while increasing stress relaxation parameter �1 and porosity-modified conductivity ratio γ 3 exhibit an opposite trend. Copyright © 2017 by ASME

Impact of Thermal Non-Equilibrium on Weak Nonlinear Rotating Porous Convection

The consequences of local thermal non-equilibrium (LTNE) on both stationary and oscillatory weak nonlinear stability of gravity-driven porous convection in an incompressible fluid-saturated rotating porous layer are investigated. A stability map is drawn in the Darcy–Taylor and scaled Vadasz number plane to demarcate the regions of stationary and oscillatory convection, and thereby, co-dimension-2 points are determined. It is found that the effect of increasing interphase heat transfer coefficient is to enhance the region of stationary convection and decrease the region of oscillatory convection. The complex Ginzburg–Landau equations are derived using the multi-scale method, and pitchfork and Hopf bifurcations occur at stationary and oscillatory critical Darcy–Rayleigh numbers, respectively. The linear and nonlinear oscillatory neutral curves are illustrated, and at the quartic point, the transition from supercritical to subcritical bifurcations is identified for the governing parameters. The impact of LTNE model is to enhance the region of forward bifurcation and post-transient amplitude compared to LTE case. Heat transfer is obtained in terms of Nusselt number for both stationary and oscillatory convection. The region of enhancement in heat flux for oscillatory convection in the smaller scaled Vadasz number domain with increasing Darcy–Taylor number increases with increasing interphase heat transfer coefficient and the porosity-modified conductivity ratio

Linear and Weakly Nonlinear Triple Diffusive Convection in a Couple Stress Fluid Layer

The effect of couple stresses on linear and weakly nonlinear stability of a triply diffusive fluid layer is investigated. Several departures not observed either in singly or doubly diffusive couple stress fluid layer have been identified while analyzing the linear stability of the problem. In contrast to the doubly diffusive couple stress fluid system, oscillatory convection is found to occur even if the diffusivity ratios are greater than unity. The presence of couple stress is to increase the threshold value of solute Rayleigh number beyond which oscillatory convection is preferred. Moreover, disconnected closed oscillatory neutral curves are identified for certain choices of physical parameters indicating the requirement of three critical values of Rayleigh number to specify the linear stability criteria instead of the usual single value. Besides, heart-shaped oscillatory neutral curves are also found to occur in some cases and the effect of couple stress parameter on some of these unusual behaviors is analyzed. A weakly nonlinear stability analysis is performed using modified perturbation technique and the stability of steady bifurcating non-trivial equilibrium solution is discussed. Heat and mass transfer are calculated in terms of Nusselt numbers and the influence of various physical parameters on the same is discussed in detail

Electrothermoconvective instability in a heat generating dielectric fluid layer

The combined effects of vertical d.c. electric field and uniform internal heat generation on the onset of convection in a horizontal poorly conducting dielectric fluid layer heated uniformly from below are investigated. The Galerkin method is used to solve the resulting eigenvalue problem. Parametric study is conducted to know the effects of varying electric Rayleigh number, Re and dimensionless heat source strength, Ns. It is found that these two parameters exhibit a dual effect on the onset of natural convection; a result noticed in contrast to their effects when they are acting in isolation. © 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved