Effect of solute dispersion on thermal convection in a porous medium layer, 2

Abstract

In some situations associated with geothermal activity, groundwater motions are affected by convection currents due to large temperature gradients. In such cases, usually saline hot water is located in the deep layers of the aquifer from which salt and heat are transferred to the upper layers. In part 1 of this study the parameters of the two‐dimensional flow field stability were determined. In this paper, further analysis of the phenomenon in three dimensions is presented. It was found that the convection cells have the shape of rolls whose axes are perpendicular to the steady state flow velocity. However, there is also a possibility of overstability of the flow field caused by rolls whose axes are parallel to the steady state velocity. The parameters of these two kinds of instability were determined in this study.