Buoyant convection in porous media

The accumulation of dense plume fluid along the bottom of a ventilated filling box filled with uniform glass beads. (From the 2014 Master's thesis of M.A. Roes).


The application of turbulent plume theory in describing the dynamics of ventilated filling boxes, control volumes connected to an infinite exterior through a series of openings along the upper and lower boundaries, has yielded novel strategies for the natural ventilation of buildings. Making the plume laminar and having it fall through a porous medium yields a problem of fundamental significance in its own right, insights from which may be applied e.g. in minimizing the contamination of drinking water by geologically-sequestered carbon dioxide or the chemicals leached from waste piles.

Working with Diogo T. Bolster (Univ. of Notre Dame), I have examined plume flow in porous media and the associated draining of discharged plume fluid from isolated fissure(s). Our composite model can be used to predict the height and thickness of the interface that separates this discharged plume fluid from the surrounding ambient. By extension, it is then straightforward to evaluate quantities like contaminant residence times, which have particular importance in the context of sequestration and remediation. Complementary similitude experiments are straightforward to run (see image above) and confirm our model predictions.

Recent presentation:
  • Gravity current flow in density-stratified media and porous media filling box flow: towards improved models of environmental transport (.pdf)

    Recent publications:
  • Buoyant convection in heterogeneous porous media with an inclined permeability jump: an experimental investigation of filling box-type flows (J. Fluid Mech., 924, with Bharath K.S.) (link)
  • Isolated buoyant convection in a two-layered porous medium with an inclined permeability jump (J. Fluid Mech., 902, with Bharath K.S. and C.K. Sahu) (link)
  • The effect of sudden permeability changes in porous media filling box flows (Transp. Porous Med., 119, with C.K. Sahu) (link)
  • Emptying filling boxes -- free turbulent versus laminar porous media plumes (J. Fluid Mech., 817, with A. Moradi) (link)
  • Buoyant convection from a discrete source in closed and leaky porous media (Proc. 8th Intl. Symposium on Stratifed Flows, with M.A. Roes, C.K. Sahu and D. Bolster) (.pdf)
  • Filling box flows in an axisymmetric porous medium (Transp. Porous Med., 112, with C.K. Sahu) (link)
  • Filling box flows in porous media (J. Fluid Mech., 782, with C.K. Sahu) (link)
  • Buoyant convection from a discrete source in a leaky porous medium (J. Fluid Mech., 755, with M.A. Roes and B.T. Bolster) (link)