Thin Newtonian film flow down a porous inclined plane: Stability analysis

TLDR: In this article, a nonlinear evolution equation for the thickness of a thin Newtonian fluid layer on a porous inclined plane is obtained, assuming that the flow through the porous medium is governed by Darcy's law.

Abstract: The flow of a thin Newtonian fluid layer on a porous inclined plane is considered. Applying the long-wave theory, a nonlinear evolution equation for the thickness of the film is obtained. It is assumed that the flow through the porous medium is governed by Darcy’s law. The critical conditions for the onset of instability of a fluid layer flowing down an inclined porous wall, when the characteristic length scale of the pore space is much smaller than the depth of the fluid layer above, are obtained. The results of the linear stability analysis reveal that the film flow system on a porous inclined plane is more unstable than that on a rigid inclined plane and that increasing the permeability of the porous medium enhances the destabilizing effect. A weakly nonlinear stability analysis by the method of multiple scales shows that there is a range of wave numbers with a supercritical bifurcation, and a range of larger wave numbers with a subcritical bifurcation. Numerical solution of the evolution equation in a...