G-Jitter-Induced Electrothermoconvection in a Dielectric Fluid Saturated Porous Layer

Abstract

This paper presents linear and nonlinear stability analyses of thermal convection in a dielectric fluid saturated sparsely packed porous layer subject to the combined effect of time-periodic gravity modulation (GM) and an AC electric field. In the domain of linear theory, the critical stability parameters are computed by the regular perturbation method in the form of a perturbation series in powers of frequency of modulation. The local nonlinear theory based on the truncated Fourier series method gives information on convection amplitudes and heat transfer. The principle of the exchange of stabilities is found to be valid and subcritical instability is ruled out. Based on the governing linear autonomous system, several qualitative results on stability are discussed. The sensitive dependence of the solution of a Lorenz system of electrothermal convection subject to the choice of initial conditions points to the possibility of chaos. Low-frequency g-jitter is found to have a significant stabilizing influence, which is in turn diminished by an imposed AC electric field. The role of sparseness of the porous layer, viscosity ratio, and normalized porosity on the stability criterion and on heat transport is determined.