BOUNDARY AND INERTIA EFFECTS ON VORTEX INSTABILITY OF A HORIZONTAL MIXED CONVECTION FLOW IN A POROUS-MEDIUM

Non-Darcian effects, including the effects of boundary and inertia, ar e examined on the flow and vortex instability of a horizontal mixed co nvective boundary layer flow in a high-porosity medium. In the base fl ow, the governing conservation equations are solved by using a suitabl e variable transformation and employing an implicit finite-difference scheme. The stability analysis is based on linear stability theory, an d the resulting equations are solved on the basis of the local similar ity approximations. The results show that the flow becomes more suscep tible to the vortex mode of disturbances as buoyancy force is increase d. In addition, both the boundary and inertia effects reduce the heat transfer rate and stabilize the flow to the vortex mode of disturbance s.