Development of Concentration-Dependent Diffusion Instability in Reactive Miscible Fluids Under Influence of Constant or Variable Inertia

Abstract

In this work, we focus on the processes which accompany a frontal neutralization reaction occurring between two miscible fluids filling a vertical Hele-Shaw cell. We have found that chemically-induced changes of reagent concentrations coupled with concentration- dependent diffusion (CDD) can produce spatially localized low density areas which are sensitive to the external inertial field. In the case of static gravity we have demonstrated both experimentally and theoretically that it can give rise to the development of perfectly periodic convective structure. This scenario is strikingly different from the irregular density fingering, which is typically observed in the miscible systems. When the system is under the influence of the periodic low-frequency vibrations perpendicular to the reaction front, we found numerically the excitation of a mixed-mode instability combining the double-diffusion instabilities and the Rayleigh-Taylor mechanism of the convection within the low density areas.