Adiabatic heating and convection in a porous medium filled with a near-critical fluid

Dynamics and heat transfer in a porous medium filled with a fluid phase at parameters near the gas-liquid critical point are studied. A two-dimensional numerical solver based on the hydrodynamic model for a porous medium with a high compressible fluid phase including the van der Waals equation of state is used. In weightlessness, adiabatic heating of fluid phase under the step-temperature heat supply is investigated analytically and numerically. In terrestrial conditions, gravity-driven convection in vertical rectangular cells generated by lateral heating in unsteady and steady-state regimes is simulated. The effects of high compressibility of near-critical fluid phase on convection are studied. Convective motions and heat transfer in horizontal rectangular cells consisting of two porous layers at different porosity and permeability heated from below are simulated as well. Adiabatic heating subjected to hydrostatic compressibility effects, the onset and development of convection, and convective structures in a steady-state regime are analyzed.