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Updated: Aug 20, 2026

Evolution of Staircase Structures in Diffusive Convection
Published on: September 5, 2018
Oscillatory convection in binary mixtures: thermodiffusion, solutal buoyancy, and advection
1Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität des Saarlandes, D-66041, Saarbrücken, Germany.
Abstract:
The role of thermodiffusive generation of concentration fluctuations via the Soret effect, their contribution to the buoyancy forces that drive convection, the advective mixing effect of the latter, and the diffusive homogenisation are compared and elucidated for oscillatory convection. Numerically obtained solutions of the field equations in the form of spatially extended relaxed traveling waves, of standing waves, and of the transient growth of standing waves and their transition to traveling waves are discussed as well as spatially localized convective states of traveling waves that are surrounded by the quiescent fluid.
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