Soret driven thermosolutal convection of power-law fluids in a shallow cavity uniformly heated from below: Case of cooperating flows

• Main Authors: Bihiche, Khadija, Lamsaadi, Mohamed
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aspect ratio; Binary fluids; Finite volume method; Fluid flow; Free convection; Heat flux; Parallel flow; Parameters; Power law; Stream functions (fluids)
• ISSN: 0094-243X; 1551-7616
• DOI: 10.1063/5.0171814

This paper reports an analytical and numerical study of the Soret effect on natural convection in a shallow horizontal cavity filled with a non-Newtonian binary fluid. A uniform heat flux is applied to the horizontal walls while the vertical walls are adiabatic. The governing parameters of the problem are the the cavity aspect ratio A, the Lewis number Le, the buoyancy ratio N, the power-law behavior index n, the generalized Prandtl Pr, and thermal Rayleigh RaT, numbers. The governing equations are solved numerically using a finite volume method. In the case of a shallow cavity (A>>1), these equations are considerably reduced by using the parallel flow approximation and a good agreement is found between the two types of solutions. Streamlines, isotherms, iso-concentrations, stream function and average Nusselt and Sherwood numbers are obtained, for various values of governing parameters. The onset and the development of convective motion, for cooperating flows are investigated. The behavior of the fluid flow was found to be strongly dependent of the values of n. Criteria of supercritical and subcritical Rayleigh numbers for the onset of motion are predicted.