Modal analysis of a fluid flowing over a porous substrate

We study the modal stability analysis for a three-dimensional fluid flowing over a saturated porous substrate where the porous medium is assumed to be anisotropic and inhomogeneous. A coupled system of time-dependent evolution equations is formulated in terms of normal velocity, normal vorticity, and fluid surface deformation, respectively, and solved numerically by using the Chebyshev spectral collocation method. Two distinct instabilities, the so-called surface mode instability and the shear mode instability, are identified. Modal stability analysis predicts that the Darcy number has a destabilizing influence on the surface mode instability but has a stabilizing influence on the shear mode instability. Similarly, the surface mode instability intensifies but the shear mode instability weakens with the increase in the value of the coefficient of inhomogeneity. Although the anisotropy parameter shows a stabilizing effect, increasing porosity exhibits a destabilizing effect on the shear mode instability. However, the anisotropy parameter and porosity have no significant impact on the surface mode instability. Spanwise wavenumber is found to have a stabilizing influence on both the surface mode and shear mode instabilities.