Multi-component convection diffusion

Abstract

In the standard Bénard problem the instability is driven by a density difference caused by a temperature difference between the upper and lower planes bounding the fluid. If the fluid layer additionally has salt dissolved in it then there are potentially two destabilizing sources for the density difference, the temperature field and the salt field. A similar scenario could be witnessed in isothermal conditions but with two dissolved salts such as sodium and potassium chloride. When there are two effects such as this the phenomenon of convection which arises is called double diffusive convection. For the specific case involving a temperature field and sodium chloride it is frequently referred to as thermohaline convection. There are many recent studies involving three or more fields, such as temperature and two salts such as NaCl, KCl. For the three or greater field case we shall refer to multi-component convection.