SIMULATION OF 2-DIMENSIONAL THERMOSOLUTAL CONVECTION IN LIQUID-METALSINDUCED BY HORIZONTAL TEMPERATURE AND SPECIES GRADIENTS

Two dimensional, thermosolutal convection in molten Pb-Sn housed withi n a square enclosure, is simulated using a spectral method. The predic tions illustrate two regimes of liquid convection which develop in res ponse to simultaneous horizontal temperature and species concentration gradients applied to the system. Sherwood numbers for the high Schmid t number fluid are quite high, and change markedly depending upon the regime of operation. Heat transfer rates are only moderately affected by convection due to the low Prandtl number of the melt. The predictio ns at relatively large Rayleigh number and buoyancy ratio display high ly oscillatory behavior in a manner consistent with previous experimen tal observations. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.