Instability of a liquid–vapor phase transition front in inhomogeneous wettable porous media

Abstract

The stability of vertical flows through a horizontally extended two-dimensional region of a porous medium is considered in the case of presence of a phase transition front. It is shown that the plane steady-state phase transition front may have several steady-state positions in the wettable porous medium and the necessary condition of their existence is obtained. The spectral stability of the plane phase transition interface is investigated. It is found that in the presence of capillary forces exerted on the phase transition front in the wettable medium the plane front can be destabilized on the mode with both infinite and zero wavenumbers (short- and long-wave instabilities); the short-wave instability can then exist even in the case of the sole steady-state position of the front.