Self-similar gravity currents in porous media: Linear stability of the Barenblatt--Pattle solution revisited (Q2488988): Difference between revisions

The authors study the linear stability of Barenblatt-Pattle (B-P) self-similar solutions of porous medium equations which model flows including viscous and porous media gravity currents. \textit{R. E. Grundy} and \textit{R. McLaughlin} [Proc. R. Soc. Lond. Ser. A 383, 89--100 (1982; Zbl 0487.35008)] have shown that, in both planar and axisymmetric geometries, the B-P solutions are linearly stable to symmetric perturbations. Using a new technique that eliminates singularities in the linear stability analysis, the authors extend the cited result and establish that the axisymmetric B-P solution is linearly stable to asymmetric perturbations. This suggests that the axisymmetric B-P solution provides the intermediate asymptotics of gravity currents that evolve from a wide range of initial distributions including those that are non-axisymmetric. The connection between the perturbation eigenfunctions and the symmetry transformations of B-P solution is used to demonstrate that the leading order rate of decay of perturbations can be maximised by redefining the volume, time and space variables. It is shown that, in general, radially symmetric perturbations decay faster than asymmetric perturbations of equal amplitude. These theoretical predictions are confirmed by numerical results.