Natural convection through a vertical porous stratum is investigated both analytically and numerically. Analytical solutions are obtained using a perturbation method valid for small values of buoyancy parameterN and the numerical solutions are obtained using Runge-Kutta-Gill method. It is shown that analytical solutions are valid forN < 1 and several features of the effect of large values ofN are reported. The combined effects of increase in the values of temperature difference between the plates and the permeability parameter on velocity, temperature, mass flow rate and the rate of heat transfer are reported. It is shown that higher temperature difference is required to achieve the mass flow rate in a porous medium equivalent to that of viscous flow.

Linear and non-linear magnetoconvection in a sparsely packed porous medium with an imposed vertical magnetic field is studied. In the case of linear theory the conditions for direct and oscillatory modes are obtained using the normal modes. Conditions for simple and Hopf-bifurcations are also given. Using the theory of self-adjoint operator the variation of critical eigenvalue with physical parameters and boundary conditions is studied. In the case of non-linear theory the subcritical instabilities for disturbances of finite amplitude is discussed in detail using a truncated representation of the Fourier expansion. The formal eigenfunction expansion procedure in the Fourier expansion based on the eigenfunctions of the corresponding linear stability problem is justified by proving a completeness theorem for a general class of non-self-adjoint eigenvalue problems. It is found that heat transport increases with an increase in Rayleigh number, ratio of thermal diffusivity to magnetic diffusivity and porous parameter but decreases with an increase in Chandrasekhar number.

The Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) instability at the interface between fluid and fluid saturated sparsely packed porous medium has been investigated making use of boundary layer approximation and Saffmann [8] boundary condition. An analytical solution for dispersion relation is obtained and is numerically evaluated for different values of the parameters. It is shown that RT instability can be controlled by a suitable choice of the thickness of porous layer, ratio of viscosities and the slip parameter.