Thermal convection in mixtures with an inversion of the separation ratio

Abstract

We have numerically investigated Rayleigh-Bénard convection in binary mixtures assuming a thermal diffusion ratio that depends on the local temperature and changes its sign within the cell. The stationary instability has been found to precede the oscillatory one for a wide range of negative mean psi values. The bifurcation diagram for stationary rolls turns out to be qualitatively different from that for constant Soret effect. Nevertheless, it can be mapped onto this special case by using a scaling argument, taking into account the fact that for small convection amplitudes the rolls are restricted to parts of the cell where the sign of the Soret coefficient favors instability.