Oil & Gas Geology ›› 2014, Vol. 35 ›› Issue (3): 431-434.doi: 10.11743/ogg20140319

Previous Articles     Next Articles

Onset of thermal convection of a viscoelastic fluid in open-top porous media

Shu Xiaohui1, Mu Langfeng2,3, Niu Jun1, Ding Jian4   

  1. 1. China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation, Beijing 100083, China;
    2. Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, Missouri 65401, U.S.A.;
    3. China University of Petroleum, Beijing 102249, China;
    4. China National Offshore Oil Corporation Iraq Company Limited, Beijing 100010, China
  • Received:2013-10-10 Revised:2014-05-11 Online:2014-06-08 Published:2014-07-11

Abstract:

This paper performed a linear stability analysis for investigating the onset of oscillatory convection of a viscoelastic fluid in an open-top porous medium heated from below.The modified Darcy's law was used to describe the flow of the viscoelastic fluid in porous media and isobaric boundary conditions were introduced to describe the open features The relaxation time and retardation time were introduced to describe the viscoelastic behaviors.Four different combinations of and were selected to calculate the critical Rayleigh numbers corresponding to the onset of thermal convection.The results reveal that the increase of the relaxation time may make it easier to destabilize the flow,leading to an earlier onset of thermal convection.In contrast,the increase of retardation time tends to stabilize the flow and postpone the onset of convection.The flow mode is only related with retardation time.The pattern of temperature disturbance is influenced by the geometric scale of the porous media and the viscoelastic parameters.

Key words: thermal convection, viscoelastic fluid, porous media, linear stability

CLC Number: