The Onset and Growth of the Buoyancy-driven Fingering Driven by the Irreversible A+B→C Reaction in a Porous Medium: Reactant Ratio Effect

The effect of a reactant ratio on the growth of a buoyancy-driven instability in an irreversible A+B -> C reaction system is analyzed theoretically and numerically. Taking a non-stoichiometric reactant ratio into account, new linear stability equations are derived without the quasi-steady state assumption (QSSA) and solved analytically. It is found that the main parameters to explain the present system are the Damkohler number, the dimensionless density difference of chemical species and the ratio of reactants. The present initial grow rate analysis without QSSA shows that the system is initially unconditionally stable regardless of the parameter values; however, the previous initial growth rate analysis based on the QSSA predicted the system is unstable if the system is physically unstable. For time evolving cases, the present growth rates obtained from the spectral analysis and pseudo-spectral method support each other, but quite differently from that obtained under the conventional QSSA. Adopting the result of the linear stability analysis as an initial condition, fully nonlinear direct numerical simulations are conducted. Both the linear analysis and the nonlinear simulation show that the reactant ratio plays an important role in the onset and the growth of the instability motion.