No Arabic abstract
We numerically study the propagation of reacting fronts in a shallow and horizontal layer of fluid with solutal feedback and in the presence of a thermally driven flow field of counter-rotating convection rolls. We solve the Boussinesq equations along with a reaction-convection-diffusion equation for the concentration field where the products of the nonlinear autocatalytic reaction are less dense than the reactants. For small values of the solutal Rayleigh number the characteristic fluid velocity scales linearly, and the front velocity and mixing length scale quadratically, with increasing solutal Rayleigh number. For small solutal Rayleigh numbers the front geometry is described by a curve that is nearly antisymmetric about the horizontal midplane. For large values of the solutal Rayleigh number the characteristic fluid velocity, the front velocity, and the mixing length exhibit square-root scaling and the front shape collapses onto an asymmetric self-similar curve. In the presence of counter-rotating convection rolls, the mixing length decreases while the front velocity increases. The complexity of the front geometry increases when both the solutal and convective contributions are significant and the dynamics can exhibit chemical oscillations in time for certain parameter values. Lastly, we discuss the spatiotemporal features of the complex fronts that form over a range of solutal and thermal driving.
We study the effect of thermal noise on the propagation speed of a planar flame. We show that this out of equilibrium greatly amplifies the effect of thermal noise to yield macroscopic reductions in the flame speed over what is predicted by the noise-free model. Computations show that noise slows the flame significantly. The flame is modeled using Navier Stokes equations with appropriate diffusive transport terms and chemical kinetic mechanism of hydrogen/oxygen. Thermal noise is modeled within the continuum framework using a system of stochastic partial differential equations, with transport noise from fluctuating hydrodynamics and reaction noise from a poisson model. We use a full chemical kinetics model in order to get quantitatively meaningful results. We compute steady and dynamic flames using an operator split finite volume scheme. New characteristic boundary conditions avoid non-physical boundary layers at computational boundaries. New limiters prevent stochastic terms from introducing non-physical negative concentrations. This represents the first computation of a model with thermal noise is a system with this degree of physical detail.
In this paper, the instability of layered two-phase flows caused by the presence of a soluble surfactant (or a surface active solute) is studied. The fluids have different viscosities, but are density matched to focus on Marangoni effects. The fluids flow between two flat plates, which are maintained at different solute concentrations. This establishes a constant flux of solute from one fluid to the other in the base state. A linear stability analysis is performed, using a combination of asymptotic and numerical methods. In the creeping flow regime, Marangoni stresses destabilize the flow, provided a concentration gradient is maintained across the fluids. One long wave and two short wave Marangoni instability modes arise, in different regions of parameter space. A well-defined condition for the long wave instability is determined in terms of the viscosity and thickness ratios of the fluids, and the direction of mass transfer. Energy budget calculations show that the Marangoni stresses that drive long and short wave instabilities have distinct origins. The former is caused by interface deformation while the latter is associated with convection by the disturbance flow. Consequently, even when the interface is non-deforming (in the large interfacial tension limit), the flow can become unstable to short wave disturbances. On increasing $Re$, the viscosity-induced interfacial instability comes into play. This mode is shown to either suppress or enhance the Marangoni instability, depending on the viscosity and thickness ratios. This analysis is relevant to applications such as solvent extraction in microchannels, in which a surface-active solute is transferred between fluids in parallel stratified flow. It is also applicable to the thermocapillary problem of layered flow between heated plates.
The article experimentally reveals and theoretically establishes the influence of electric fields on the evaporation kinetics of pendant droplets. It is shown that the evaporation kinetics of saline pendant droplets can be augmented by the application of an external alternating electric field. The evaporation behaviour is modulated by an increase in the field strength and frequency. The classical diffusion driven evaporation model is found insufficient in predicting the improved evaporation rates. The change in surface tension due to field constraint is insufficient for explaining the observed physics. Consequently, the internal hydrodynamics of the droplet is probed employing particle image velocimetry. It is revealed that the electric field induces enhanced internal advection, which improves the evaporation rates. A scaled analytical model is proposed to understand the role of internal electrohydrodynamics, electrothermal and the electrosolutal effects. Stability maps reveal that the advection is caused nearly equally by the electrosolutal and electrothermal effects within the droplet. The model is able to illustrate the influence played by the governing thermal and solutal Marangoni number, the electro Prandtl and electro Schmidt number, and the associated Electrohydrodynamic number. The magnitude of the internal circulation can be well predicted by the proposed model, which validates the proposed mechanism.
The physicochemical hydrodynamics of bubbles and droplets out of equilibrium, in particular with phase transitions, displays surprisingly rich and often counterintuitive phenomena. Here we experimentally and theoretically study the nucleation and early evolution of plasmonic bubbles in a binary liquid consisting of water and ethanol. Remarkably, the submillimeter plasmonic bubble is found to be periodically attracted to and repelled from the nanoparticle-decorated substrate, with frequencies of around a few kHz. We identify the competition between solutal and thermal Marangoni forces as origin of the periodic bouncing. The former arises due to the selective vaporization of ethanol at the substrates side of the bubble, leading to a solutal Marangoni flow towards the hot substrate, which pushes the bubble away. The latter arises due to the temperature gradient across the bubble, leading to a thermal Marangoni flow away from the substrate which sucks the bubble towards it. We study the dependence of the frequency of the bouncing phenomenon from the control parameters of the system, namely the ethanol fraction and the laser power for the plasmonic heating. Our findings can be generalized to boiling and electrolytically or catalytically generated bubbles in multicomponent liquids.
Laboratory experimental results are presented for nonlinear Internal Solitary Waves (ISW) propagation in deep water configuration with miscible fluids. The results are validated against direct numerical simulations and traveling wave exact solutions where the effect of the diffused interface is taken into account. The waves are generated by means of a dam break and their evolution is recorded with Laser Induced Fluorescence (LIF) and Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV). In particular, data collected in a frame moving with the waves are presented here for the first time. Our results are representative of geophysical applications in the deep ocean where weakly nonlinear theories fail to capture the characteristics of large amplitude ISWs from field observations.