Evolution of a Condensation Surface in a Porous Medium near the Instability Threshold

Abstract

We consider the dynamics of a narrow band of weakly unstable and weakly nonlinear perturbations of a plane phase transition surface separating regions of soil saturated with water and with humid air; during transition to instability, the existing stable position of the phase transition surface is assumed to be sufficiently close to another phase transition surface that arises as a result of a turning point bifurcation. We show that such perturbations are described by a Kolmogorov–Petrovskii–Piskunov type equation.