Control of Chemoconvection in a Rectangular Slot by Changing Its Spatial Orientation

Abstract

Recently, we found that a two-layer miscible system placed in a vertical slab reactor shows an occurrence of a density shock-wave-like pattern. This wave resembles a turbulent bore separating immobile fluid and an area of intense mixing. It travels away from the convective core of the system and is highly dependent on the intensity of a gravity-dependent chemoconvection in the cocurrent flow. The novelty of this work is that we demonstrate that the change in angle between gravity and wave direction allows controlling the chemoconvection intensity and, consequently, the rate of a spatially-extended reaction. We study both experimentally and numerically the effect of the spatial orientation of a slab reactor to a gravity field on a flow structure induced by a neutralization reaction. In experiments, we use aqueous mixtures of nitric acid and sodium hydroxide. We apply the Fizeau interferometry to visualize the flow and use the PIV method to measure the fluid velocity. The mathematical model includes reaction–diffusion–convection equations that describe 3D flows. We study the flow modifications with a change in the inclination angle from 0 to 90 degrees. At small angles (up to 30), the cocurrent flow becomes spatially heterogeneous, and the fields of salt and acid are separated. If the inclination exceeds 50 degrees, the wavefront is deformed, and the wave breaks up, resulting in a sharp decrease in the reaction rate.