The effect of inertia on free convective plumes in porous media

The boundary layer approximation to the flow induced by a line source of heat embedded in a porous medium predicts that seepage velocities become large as the source is approached, and therefore it is expected that inertia (form drag) should become significant. Such an inertia-dominated regime was studied by Ingham [1], but we extend that analysis to intermediate distances from the source by computing the smooth transition between the inertia-dominated and inertia-free regimes.