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Updated: Nov 9, 2025

Evolution of Staircase Structures in Diffusive Convection
Published on: September 5, 2018
Advection-enhanced diffusion in biased convection arrays
Yunyun Li1, Qingqing Yin1, Fabio Marchesoni1,2
1Center for Phononics and Thermal Energy Science, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Special Artificial Microstructure Materials and Technology, School of Physics Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China.
Abstract:
We numerically investigated the transport of a passive colloidal particle in a one-dimensional periodic array of planar counter-rotating convection rolls at high Péclet numbers. We show that advection-enhanced diffusion is drastically suppressed by an external transverse bias but strongly reinforced by a longitudinal drive of appropriate intensity. Both effects are magnified by imposing free-slip flows at the array's edges. The dependence of the diffusion constant on an external forcing is interpreted as a measure of the fluid-mechanical robustness of the flow boundary layer mechanism governing diffusion in convection rolls.
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