Vortex instability of buoyancy-induced inclined boundary layer flow in a saturated porous medium (Q1119130)

A linear stability theory is used to analyze the vortex instability of buoyancy-induced boundary layer flow in a saturated porous medium adjacent to an inclined heated surface, where the wall temperature is a power function of the distance from the origin. In the main flow analysis, both the streamwise and normal component of the buoyancy force are retained in the momentum equations. Numerical results for surface heat transfer, the neutral stability curve, critical Rayleigh and wave numbers are presented for the angles of inclination \(\Phi\) from the horizontal in the range of 0 to 70\(\circ\). It is found that as the angle of inclination from the horizontal increases, the heat transfer rate increases, whereas the susceptibility of the flow to the vortex mode of instability decreases. The present study provides new vortex instability results for small angles of inclination (\(\Phi\leq 30\circ)\) and more accurate results for large angles of inclination \((\Phi >30\circ)\) than the previous study by \textit{C. T. Hsu} and \textit{P. Cheng} [ASME J. Heat Transfer 101, 660-665 (1979)], where the normal component of the buoyancy force in the main flow was neglected.