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Salinity transfer in bounded double diffusive convection

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 March 2015

Yantao Yang ,
Erwin P. van der Poel ,
Rodolfo Ostilla-Mónico ,
Chao Sun ,
Roberto Verzicco ,
Siegfried Grossmann  and
Detlef Lohse
Yantao Yang*
Affiliation:
Physics of Fluids Group, Faculty of Science and Technology, MESA+ Research Institute, and J. M. Burgers Centre for Fluid Dynamics, University of Twente, PO Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands
Erwin P. van der Poel
Affiliation:
Physics of Fluids Group, Faculty of Science and Technology, MESA+ Research Institute, and J. M. Burgers Centre for Fluid Dynamics, University of Twente, PO Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands
Rodolfo Ostilla-Mónico
Affiliation:
Physics of Fluids Group, Faculty of Science and Technology, MESA+ Research Institute, and J. M. Burgers Centre for Fluid Dynamics, University of Twente, PO Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands
Chao Sun
Affiliation:
Physics of Fluids Group, Faculty of Science and Technology, MESA+ Research Institute, and J. M. Burgers Centre for Fluid Dynamics, University of Twente, PO Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands
Roberto Verzicco
Affiliation:
Physics of Fluids Group, Faculty of Science and Technology, MESA+ Research Institute, and J. M. Burgers Centre for Fluid Dynamics, University of Twente, PO Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands Dipartimento di Ingegneria Industriale, University of Rome ‘Tor Vergata’, Via del Politecnico 1, Roma 00133, Italy
Siegfried Grossmann
Affiliation:
Fachbereich Physik, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Renthof 6, D-35032 Marburg, Germany
Detlef Lohse
Affiliation:
Physics of Fluids Group, Faculty of Science and Technology, MESA+ Research Institute, and J. M. Burgers Centre for Fluid Dynamics, University of Twente, PO Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands
*
†Email address for correspondence: yantao.yang@utwente.nl
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Abstract

The double diffusive convection between two parallel plates is numerically studied for a series of parameters. The flow is driven by the salinity difference and stabilised by the thermal field. Our simulations are directly compared with experiments by Hage & Tilgner (Phys. Fluids, vol. 22, 2010, 076603) for several sets of parameters and reasonable agreement is found. This, in particular, holds for the salinity flux and its dependence on the salinity Rayleigh number. Salt fingers are present in all simulations and extend through the entire height. The thermal Rayleigh number seems to have a minor influence on the salinity flux but affects the Reynolds number and the morphology of the flow. In addition to the numerical calculation, we apply the Grossmann–Lohse theory for Rayleigh–Bénard flow to the present problem without introducing any new coefficients. The theory successfully predicts the salinity flux both with respect to the scaling and even with respect to the absolute value for the numerical and experimental results.

JFM classification

Convection: Convection Convection: Double diffusive convection
Type
Papers
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 768 , 10 April 2015 , pp. 476 - 491
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Copyright
© 2015 Cambridge University Press 

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