En el presente trabajo se estudia la propagación de frentes químicos sujetos a la inestabilidad de Rayleigh- Taylor. El flujo convectivo es modelado utilizando la ecuación de Navier-Stokes. Los resultados serán comparados con los obtenidos con la ley de Darcy. La inestabilidad de Rayleigh-Taylor se presenta cuando dos uidos de distintas densidades separados por una delgada interfaz plana se vuelve inestable debido al gradiente de densidades que ocurre cuando el fluido más denso esta encima del menos denso y bajo la acción de la gravedad. Se consideran fluidos con las siguientes condiciones: inmiscibles, incompresibles e irrotacionales. Para describir el frente de propagación hemos utilizado la ecuación de Kuramoto-Sivashinsky(K-S) acoplada con la ecuación de Navier-Stokes para la evolución del ujo de convección. La solución de la ecuación (K-S) ofrece una rica variedad de comportamiento espaciotemporal: frentes planos, frentes simétricos o asimétricos, frentes oscilantes y caóticos. El análisis de estabilidad lineal muestra regiones de bi-estabilidad para diferentes números de Rayleigh. / In the present work, the propagation of chemical fronts subject to Rayleigh-Taylor instability is studied. Convective ow is modeled using the Navier-Stokes equation. The results will be compared with those obtained with Darcy's law. Rayleigh-Taylor instability occurs when two fluids of different densities separated by a thin at interface becomes unstable due to the density gradient that occurs when the densest fluid is above the less dense and under the action of gravity. They are considered uid with the following conditions: immiscible, incompressible and irrotational. To describe the propagation front we used the Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation (K-S) coupled with the Navier-Stokes equation for the evolution of the convection ow. The solution of the equation (K-S) offers a rich variety of space-time behavior: at fronts, symmetrical or asymmetric fronts, oscillating and chaotic fronts. The linear stability analysis shows regions of bi-stability for different Rayleigh numbers. / Tesis

Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation in a two dimensional slab with infinite walls and advection by external flow is considered. Stationary front solutions were then found using the shooting method with simple Euler method and oscillatory front solutions were solved with simple Euler method. Numerical results for both were analyzed, finding the solutions for stationary fronts including external flow, Couette and Poiseuille. A modified Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation, similar to the equation used to described solitary waves was also considered and the effect it had on stationary fronts with and without external flow was also explored. For oscillatory solutions, the front profiles and the phase space diagrams were calculated, a bifurcation diagram was also analyzed for no external flow as well as for fronts advected by Poiseuille and Couette external flow, and good agreement with Feigenbaum’s number was found in all cases.

Buoyancy-driven convection is a phenomenon that appears in a wide range of natural processes, from atmospheric and oceanic flows to the Earth’s core inner dynamics. In particular, convective flows are ubiquitous in systems of chemical substances reacting at an interface known as a reaction front. Autocatalytic reaction fronts allow for different types of instabilities due to gradients in chemical composition and the exothermicity of the reaction. In order to study the effects of thermal gradients in such systems, we develop a model for thin-front propagation in two-dimensional tubes. Temperature and front evolution are coupled to two different descriptions of the system’s hydrodynamics: Darcy’s law and the Navier-Stokes equations for viscous flows. We study the stability of the convectionless flat front by carrying out a linear stability analysis. The regimes for which convection arises will depend on a control parameter, called the thermal Rayleigh number, which measures the strength of thermal gradients in the system. We vary this parameter between positive and negative values and analyze its effects on the stability of the fronts.

En el presente trabajo se estudia la propagación de frentes químicos sujetos a la inestabilidad de Rayleigh- Taylor. El flujo convectivo es modelado utilizando la ecuación de Navier-Stokes. Los resultados serán comparados con los obtenidos con la ley de Darcy. La inestabilidad de Rayleigh-Taylor se presenta cuando dos uidos de distintas densidades separados por una delgada interfaz plana se vuelve inestable debido al gradiente de densidades que ocurre cuando el fluido más denso esta encima del menos denso y bajo la acción de la gravedad. Se consideran fluidos con las siguientes condiciones: inmiscibles, incompresibles e irrotacionales. Para describir el frente de propagación hemos utilizado la ecuación de Kuramoto-Sivashinsky(K-S) acoplada con la ecuación de Navier-Stokes para la evolución del ujo de convección. La solución de la ecuación (K-S) ofrece una rica variedad de comportamiento espaciotemporal: frentes planos, frentes simétricos o asimétricos, frentes oscilantes y caóticos. El análisis de estabilidad lineal muestra regiones de bi-estabilidad para diferentes números de Rayleigh. / In the present work, the propagation of chemical fronts subject to Rayleigh-Taylor instability is studied. Convective ow is modeled using the Navier-Stokes equation. The results will be compared with those obtained with Darcy's law. Rayleigh-Taylor instability occurs when two fluids of different densities separated by a thin at interface becomes unstable due to the density gradient that occurs when the densest fluid is above the less dense and under the action of gravity. They are considered uid with the following conditions: immiscible, incompressible and irrotational. To describe the propagation front we used the Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation (K-S) coupled with the Navier-Stokes equation for the evolution of the convection ow. The solution of the equation (K-S) offers a rich variety of space-time behavior: at fronts, symmetrical or asymmetric fronts, oscillating and chaotic fronts. The linear stability analysis shows regions of bi-stability for different Rayleigh numbers.