The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of the Soret effe
ct on natural convection in a vertical cavity filled with a binary liquid.
The two vertical walls of the cavity are subject to constant fluxes of heat
while the two horizontal ones are adiabatic. The analysis deals with the p
articular situation where the buoyancy forces induced by the thermal and so
lutal effects are opposing each other and of equal intensity. In the limit
of tall enclosures an analytical model is derived on the basis of a paralle
l flow approximation. The study is completed by a numerical solution of the
full governing equations. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd.