Natural Convection Flows Due to the Combined Buoyancy of Heat and Mass Diffusion in a Thermally Stratified Medium

Abstract

This paper presents a numerical study of laminar doubly diffusive free convection flows adjacent to a vertical surface in a stable thermally stratified medium. The two buoyant mechanisms are thermal diffusion and species diffusion. The species concentration is assumed to be small. Boussinesq approximations are incorporated and the governing conservation equations of mass, momentum, energy, and species are nondimensionalized. These equations are solved using a finite-difference method. The results are explained in terms of the basic physical mechanisms that govern these flows. It is observed that the ambient thermal stratification has a profound influence on the transport characteristics. The results show many interesting aspects of the complex interaction of the two buoyant mechanisms.