Anisotropy and the Onset of the Thermoconvective Instability in a Vertical Porous Layer

The thermoconvective instability of the parallel vertical flow in a fluid saturated porous layer bounded by parallel open boundaries is studied. The open boundaries are assumed to be kept at constant uniform pressure while their temperatures are uniform and different, thus forcing a horizontal temperature gradient across the layer. The anisotropic permeability of the porous layer is accounted for by assuming the principal axes to be oriented along the directions perpendicular and parallel to the layer boundaries. A linear stability analysis based on the Fourier normal modes of perturbation is carried out by testing the effect of the inclination of the normal mode wavevector to the vertical. The neutral stability curves and the critical Rayleigh number for the onset of the instability are evaluated by solving numerically the stability eigenvalue problem.