The effect of imperfectly insulated sidewalls on natural convection in porous media (Q1187184)

The paper presents the results on an investigation of the effect of imperfectly insulated sidewalls on natural convection in porous media at slightly supercritical Rayleigh numbers. An analytical solution for a rectangular domain with imperfectly insulated sidewalls and heated from below, is obtained through the weak nonlinear theory. The solution enables the determination of the amplitude of the convection and the direction of the flow. The amplitude results from an ordinary nonhomogeneous differential equation, with a forcing term representing the heat leakage through the lateral walls.