Morphological instability of an evaporation front moving in a geothermal reservoir

Abstract

The evaporation front moving with a constant velocity through a high-temperature geothermal reservoir is investigated. The solution in the form of a traveling wave is represented. The existence of a thermodynamically consistent solution and the solution with superheating of water ahead of the phase transition front is demonstrated. A boundary separating two types of the solutions is found in the domain of constitutive parameters. Stability of the solutions obtained is investigated by means of the normal mode method. It is shown that the criterion of superheating of water ahead of the boiling front and the criterion of linear stability of the front do not coincide.