Onset of double-diffusive convection in a saturated porous layer with time-periodic surface heating (Q1286858)

The author studies the stability of a fluid-saturated, horizontal porous layer in the presence of a solute concentration gradient and time-periodic thermal gradient. The study is motivated by an important technological application, namely the directional solidification of binary alloys in microgravity. The modulated gradient is the result of a sinusoidal upper surface temperature which models the effect of heating of the layer by variable solar radiation. Darcy and Boussinesq approximations are employed, and it is assumed that the equation of state is linear in temperature and concentration. The author carries out a linear stability analysis to predict the onset of convection and critical wavenumbers for the system. The critical conditions are obtained via the Galerkin method and Floquet theory. It is shown that there exists a destabilizing subharmonic mode which lowers the critical thermal Rayleigh numbers as the modulation amplitude increases. The paper contains also many other interesting results.