LOCAL THERMAL NON-EQUILIBRIUM AND HETEROGENEITY EFFECTS ON THE ONSET OF CONVECTION IN A LAYERED POROUS MEDIUM WITH VERTICAL THROUGHFLOW

Abstract

We investigated the combined effects of throughflow and local thermal non-equilibrium on the onset of convection in a porous medium consisting of two horizontal layers. In our analytical study, which is performed using linear stability theory, we considered variations of permeability, fluid thermal conductivity, solid thermal conductivity, interphase heat transfer coefficient, and porosity. It is found that heterogeneity of permeability and fluid thermal conductivity have a major effect, heterogeneity of the interphase heat transfer coefficient and porosity have a lesser effect, while heterogeneity of solid thermal conductivity is relatively unimportant.