The stability of Prandtl-Darcy convection in a vertical porous layer (Q1119123)

In this note the stability of the flow generated by heating a vertical layer of fluid-saturated porous material from the side is considered. Such a configuration is of considerable importance in insulation engineering, e.g. since the onset of an instability will greatly enhance the heat transferred through the layer. The layer is assumed to be infinite in extent in order to simplify the analysis, but it should be noted that the presence of endwalls in a finite cavity could modify the present results. It is the task of this note, to consider the effect of a finite Prandtl-Darcy number on Gill's result. Although the Forchheimer and Brinkman terms are neglected here, one has been unable to furnish an analytical proof of stability/instability. One has therefore resorted to numerical methods to solve the perturbation equations arising from a simple linear stability analysis. Although every possible combination of Rayleigh number, wave number and Prandtl-Darcy number cannot be considered, the results presented here indicate that the basic flow is stable for all Prandtl-Darcy numbers.