Thermogravitational separation has, until now, been used in differentially heated vertical cells, called thermogravitational columns (TGCs). The cell can be either a slit or an annular cavity whose two isothermal faces are maintained at different temperatures $T_1$ and $T_2$. In this study, we show contrary to what has been done until now, that it is possible to carry out the separation of the species of a binary mixture in the classical configuration of Rayleigh-Bénard (horizontal cell heated from below with the separation ratio $\psi >{\psi }_{\mathrm{mono}}>0$ or from above with $\psi <0$); we obtain a monocellular flow for $\psi >{\psi }_{\mathrm{mono}}$ at the onset of convection. The species separation, in a horizontal cell, is obtained without fear of the remixing observed in vertical thermogravitational cells for fluids with negative Soret coefficients. In this situation, the heaviest component concentrates in the upper part of the cell creating an unstable physical situation. We improve the efficiency of separation for the development of an industrial process of separation. We study the thermogravitational separation of the components of a binary fluid mixture saturating a horizontal porous layer, in the presence of the Soret effect. The horizontal walls of the cavity are impermeable and maintained at constant and different temperatures. The system of equations governing the problem has an equilibrium solution with a vertical stratification of temperature and concentration. This solution loses its stability via a stationary bifurcation for values of the separation ratio $\psi >{\psi }_0$ while, for $\psi <{\psi }_0$, stability is lost via a Hopf bifurcation. For a cavity heated from below, the flow resulting from the stationary bifurcation becomes monocellular beyond a certain value of $\psi >{\psi }_{\mathrm{mono}}>0$ and leads to a separation of the species between the two ends of the cell. We propose to determine whether the monocellular flow remains stable until the optimum of separation and if we can obtain high separation in the case of a horizontal cavity. We verify that the critical Rayleigh number ${\mathrm{Ra}}_{c_2}$, associated with the transition between monocellular flow and multicellular flow, is higher than the optimum Rayleigh number leading to maximum separation of species. Thus this study reveals that it is possible to obtain optimal separation before the monocellular flow loses its stability. We show also that the separation inside the horizontal cell in a Rayleigh-Bénard configuration permits us to produce the same degree of separation but with a greater quantity of each species compared to a thermogravitational vertical column.

• Received 27 June 2007

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.77.026310