Rayleigh-Benard Instability of an Ellis Fluid Saturating a Porous Medium

The Ellis model describes the apparent viscosity of a shear-thinning fluid with no singularity in the limit of a vanishingly small shear stress. In particular, this model matches the Newtonian behaviour when the shear stresses are very small. The emergence of the Rayleigh-Benard instability is studied when a horizontal pressure gradient, yielding a basic throughflow, is prescribed in a horizontal porous layer. The threshold conditions for the linear instability of this system are obtained both analytically and numerically. In the case of a negligible flow rate, the onset of the instability occurs for the same parametric conditions reported in the literature for a Newtonian fluid saturating a porous medium. On the other hand, when high flow rates are considered, a negligibly small temperature difference imposed across the horizontal boundaries is sufficient to trigger the convective instability.

Automated summary

The Ellis model effectively describes the viscosity of a shear-thinning fluid with small shear stress, matching Newtonian behavior. The emergence of Rayleigh-Benard instability is studied under a horizontal pressure gradient, yielding threshold conditions for linear instability. In situations with high flow rates, a small temperature difference across horizontal boundaries is enough to trigger convective instability.