Natural convection in a horizontal fluid layer periodically heated from above and below

Natural convection in a horizontal slot heated from above and from below has been considered. Each heating has a certain spatial distribution. It has been demonstrated that a wide variety of convection patterns can be generated by changing the relative position of both heating patterns. A significant intensification of convection, compared to convection resulting from heating applied at one wall only, results if there is no phase shift between both patterns, while a significant reduction of convection results from the phase shift corresponding to half of the heating wavelength. The system generates a nonzero mean shear stress at each wall for all phase shifts except shifts corresponding to half of and one full heating wavelength. This effect, which is generated within one convection cell, gives rise to a global force which may lead to a thermally induced drift of the walls if such a drift was allowed.