On the porosity influence on stability of flow over porous medium

Abstract

The stability of incompressible fluid plane-parallel flow over a layer of a saturated porous medium is studied. The results of a linear stability analysis are described at different porosity values. The considered system is bounded by solid wall from the porous layer bottom. Top fluid surface is free and rigid. A linear stability analysis of plane-parallel stationary flow is presented. It is realized for parameter area where the neutral stability curves are bimodal. The porosity variation effect on flow stability is considered. It is shown that there is a transition between two main instability modes: long-wave and short-wave. The long-wave instability mechanism is determined by inflection points within the velocity profile. The short-wave instability is due to the large transverse gradient of flow velocity near the interface between liquid and porous medium. Porosity decrease stabilizes the long wave perturbations without significant shift of the critical wavenumber. Simultaneously, the short-wave perturbations destabilize, and their critical wavenumber changes in wide range. When the porosity is less than 0.7, the inertial terms in filtration equation and magnitude of the viscous stress near the interface increase to such an extent that the Kelvin-Helmholtz analogue of instability becomes the dominant mechanism for instability development. The stability band realizes in narrow porosity area. It separates the two branches of the neutral curve.