Analytical and Numerical Study of Soret and Dufour Effects on Thermosolutal Convection in a Horizontal Brinkman Porous Layer with a Stress-Free Upper Boundary

Abstract

In this paper, thermo-diffusion (Soret effect) and diffusion-thermo (Dufour effect) effects on double-diffusive natural convection induced in a horizontal Brinkman porous layer with a stress-free upper boundary are investigated. The cavity is filled with a binary fluid and subjected to uniform fluxes of heat and mass on its long sides. An analytical solution based on the parallel flow approximation is developed for the problem considered in order to allow prompt determination of the thresholds of stationary and finite amplitude solutions and also heat and mass transfer characteristics. The analytical solution is validated numerically by using a finite difference method. The combined effects of the Soret and Dufour parameters, the thermal Rayleigh number, the buoyancy ratio, and the Darcy number on the flow intensity and heat and mass transfer are illustrated graphically, and some particular behaviors observed are discussed. The analytical solution proves the existence of different regions in the buoyancy ratio-Dufour parameter plane, corresponding to different parallel flow behaviors. The number, the location, and the extent of these regions, which are impossible to predict numerically, depend strongly on Soret and Dufour parameters. The effect of thermo-diffusion and diffusion-thermo on flow intensity and heat and mass transfer is found to be important.