On the competition between rotation and variable viscosity in a Darcy-Brinkman model

TL;DR

This paper investigates how rotation and temperature-dependent variable viscosity influence the onset of thermal convection in a porous medium, revealing that their combined effects can induce oscillatory convection, a novel finding in the field.

Contribution

It demonstrates, through numerical analysis, that the interplay between rotation and variable viscosity can lead to oscillatory convection, challenging previous assumptions of their independent effects.

Findings

Rotation stabilizes the onset of convection.

Variable viscosity's effect depends on the Taylor number.

Combined effects can cause oscillatory convection.

Abstract

In the present paper, the onset of thermal convection in a uniformly rotating Darcy-Brinkman porous medium saturated by a variable viscosity fluid is investigated and the competing interplay between rotation and temperature-dependent viscosity is then analysed. %It is well-known in literature that rotation inhibits the onset of vertical motions within the fluid, whereas variable viscosity that depends on temperature may facilitate the onset of instability. In literature it has been proved that considering a variable viscosity fluid saturating a porous medium does not produce any additional oscillating motions at the onset of convection. In this direction, similar results have been obtained in [1], where the authors prove the validity of the principle of exchange of stabilities in a rotating porous medium. Here, it is shown numerically that the combined effect of rotation and variable viscosity may lead to the occurrence of oscillatory convection. This result is remarkable and not known in literature, to the best of our knowledge. The stabilising effect of rotation on the onset of convection is recovered, while it is shown that the effect of variable viscosity on the behaviour of the critical Rayleigh number depends on the choice of the Taylor number. Nonlinear analysis is performed via the energy method and sufficient condition for the stability of the basic solution is determined. Proximity of the results from the linear and nonlinear analyses is obtained thanks to numerical techniques, i.e. Chebyshev-tau method and golden section method.