Laterally Penetrative Onset of Convection in a Horizontal Porous Layer

The onset of Darcy–Bénard convection in an unlimited horizontal porous layer is studied theoretically. The thermomechanical boundary conditions of Dirichlet or Neumann type at the lower and upper plane are switched from one type to another, at certain values of the horizontal x-coordinate. A semi-infinite portion of the lower boundary is defined as thermally conducting and impermeable, while the remaining boundary is open and with given heat flux. At the upper boundary, the same thermomechanical conditions are applied, but with a relative spatial displacement L and in the opposite spatial order. A domain of local destabilization around the origin is generated between the lines of discontinuity =±/2 x = ± L / 2 . The marginal state of convection is triggered centrally, while it is penetrative in the domains exterior to the central domain. The onset problem is solved numerically, with a general 3D mode of disturbance, but 2D disturbances are preferred in most cases. The critical Rayleigh number is given as a function of the dimensionless gap width L and the wavenumber k in the y direction along the lines of discontinuity in the boundary conditions. An asymptotic formula for 2D penetrative eigenfunctions is shown to be in agreement with the numerical results