Instability, bifurcation and nonlinear dynamics of Poiseuille flow in fluid overlying an anisotropic and inhomogeneous porous domain

The present study focuses on the finite amplitude analysis of Poiseuille flow in an anisotropic and inhomogeneous porous domain that underlies a fluid domain. The nonlinear interactions are studied by imposing finite amplitude disturbances to the Poiseuille flow. The former interactions in terms of modal amplitudes dictate the fundamental mode, the distorted mean flow, the second harmonic and the distorted fundamental mode. The harmonics are solved progressively in increasing order of the least stable mode obtained from the linear theory to ascertain the cubic Landau equation, which in turn helps to determine the bifurcation phenomena. The presented weakly nonlinear theory predicts the existence of subcritical transition to turbulence of Poiseuille flow in such superposed systems. In general, on moving away from the bifurcation point, it is found that a decrease in the value of inhomogeneity (in terms of $A_i$), Darcy number $\left(\delta \right)$ and an increase in the value of depth ratio ($\hat{d}$; the ratio of fluid domain thickness to that of porous domain) favours subcritical bifurcation. For the considered variation of parameters, the bifurcation, either subcritical or supercritical, remains the same irrespective of the value of media anisotropy ($\xi$) in the vicinity of the bifurcation point except for $\hat{d}=0.2,A_i=1$. In such a situation, subcritical (supercritical) bifurcation is witnessed for $\xi =0.001,0.01,0.1$ (1,3). Furthermore, in contrast to isotropic and homogeneous porous media, both subcritical and supercritical bifurcations are observed when moving away from the bifurcation point. A correspondence between the type of mode via linear theory and the type of bifurcation via nonlinear theory is witnessed, which is further affirmed by the secondary flow patterns. Finally, the presented theoretical results reveal an early onset of subcritical transition to turbulence in comparison with isotropic and homogeneous porous media.