Investigation of chemoconvection in vibration fields.

This study is devoted to the investigation of the chemoconvection in a two-layer miscible system caused by the neutralisation reaction proceeding in the convective-controlled (CC) regime under the influence of vertical vibrations. The CC regime without vibrational influence is characterized by the development of a density wave and vigorous convection in the upper layer, ensuring a high reaction rate and forcing the reaction front to move downwards more rapidly than in the well-known diffusive-controlled (DC) regime. It is shown that vibrations lead to some deceleration of the convection that depends both on the magnitude of the vibrational acceleration and on the initial concentrations of the reagents.

Shock-wave-like structures induced by an exothermic neutralization reaction in miscible fluids.

We report shock-wave-like structures that are strikingly different from previously observed fingering instabilities, which occur in a two-layer system of miscible fluids reacting by a second-order reaction A+B→S in a vertical Hele-Shaw cell. While the traditional analysis expects the occurrence of a diffusion-controlled convection, we show both experimentally and theoretically that the exothermic neutralization reaction can also trigger a wave with a perfectly planar front and nearly discontinuous change in density across the front. This wave propagates fast compared with the characteristic diffusion times and separates the motionless fluid and the area with anomalously intense convective mixing.

Concentration-dependent diffusion instability in reactive miscible fluids.

We report on chemoconvective pattern formation phenomena observed in a two-layer system of miscible fluids filling a vertical Hele-Shaw cell. We show both experimentally and theoretically that the concentration-dependent diffusion coupled with frontal acid-base neutralization can give rise to the formation of a local unstable zone low in density, resulting in a perfectly regular cell-type convective pattern. The described effect gives an example of yet another powerful mechanism which allows the reaction-diffusion processes to govern the flow of reacting fluids under gravity conditions.