Traveling spatially localized convective structures in an inclined porous medium

Abstract

Multiple stationary, localized structures were recently found for inclined porous medium convection with constant-temperature boundaries. We analyze traveling asymmetric, localized convective structures, consisting of 1 to 5 pulses, in a 2D inclined porous layer with fixed temperature at the bottom and an imperfectly conducting boundary at the top, such that midplane reflection symmetry is broken. Direct numerical simulations (DNS) are performed with different Biot numbers at the top boundary. The drift velocity $c$ of pulses is measured for different values of the symmetry parameter $\kappa\geq0$ based on the Biot number, with perfect midplane reflection symmetry and $c=0$ at $\kappa=0$. In small domains, the drift velocity $c>0$ (upslope), increases monotonically with $\kappa$, while in large domains $c$ changes sign depending on parameters. We show that pulse tails, controlling interactions, depend on the dominant spatial eigenvalues, whose real part is closest to zero, with a transition at $\kappa_c>0$: below $\kappa_c$, both dominant eigenvalues are complex, and the tails are oscillatory. Above $\kappa_c$, the dominant spatial eigenvalue with a positive real part becomes real, and the downslope tail transitions from oscillatory to monotonic. Below $\kappa_c$, bound states with different numbers of pulses exist whose collisions are studied. Well above $\kappa_c$, adjacent pulses repel each other, spreading out and becoming equispaced in the domain. A reduced model is proposed based on the interaction via tails of adjacent pulses, reproducing the repulsion and collisions from DNS. The model shows that the transition from bound states to equidistant spreading occurs when the monotonic/oscillatory tails have the same slope. This study elucidates the motion of localized patterns in moderate-Rayleigh number convection in an inclined porous layer with an imperfectly conducting boundary.