Natural Convection and Soret Effect in a Multi-Layered Liquid and Porous System

We investigated the onset of natural convection and thermodiffusion in an initially quiescent multi-layer system consisting of a porous layer sandwiched between two layers of a binary mixture, while the whole system is being heated from above. Two different water-alcohol mixtures were used with Soret coefficients of opposite sign. Then in similar situation a hydrocarbon mixture were investigated. It was found that when the Soret coefficient is negative, the lighter species migrates towards the colder surface while the denser species migrates towards the hotter surface. When the Soret coefficient is positive, the lighter species migrates towards the hotter surface while the denser species migrates towards the colder surface. Also, increasing the temperature difference leads to a greater separation of the mixture components because of the increase in the density gradient. In addition, increasing the porosity reduces the separation ratio due to the increased fluid mixing in the pores.