Compact finite difference scheme for anisotropic convection Darcy

A compact finite difference scheme has been developed for modeling convection in a porous medium saturated with a fluid. We consider the problem for a rectangular domain with anisotropic permeability and thermal conductivity properties in terms of stream function and temperature deviation, taking into account Darcy's law. Boundary conditions of impenetrability and a linear distribution of temperature are set. This model is cosymmetric when certain conditions are imposed on the permeability and thermal conductivities. One parametric family of stationary convection regimes arises when mechanical equilibrium loses stability. A numerical method with a fourth-order finite difference approximation for spatial variables and a Runge – Kutta integrator for time has been developed. It has been proved that this scheme preserves cosymmetry. Numerical results for evaluating the critical Rayleigh number have been presented. We compare them with results obtained using a second-order finite-difference method. We show that critical Rayleigh numbers are repeated twice with very high accuracy, which proves cosymmetry preservation. Numerical evaluation of convective regimes and spectral properties are presented. The efficiency of the developed compact finite difference scheme on a nine-point stencil is assessed.