Separation in an inclined porous thermogravitational cell

This paper reports a theoretical and numerical study of species separation in a binary liquid mixture saturating a shallow porous layer heated from below or from above and inclined with respect to the vertical axis. It is shown that the separation can be increased using this configuration and the stability of the unicellular flow obtained in this case is investigated. The critical Rayleigh number obtained is much higher than the one leading to the maximum separation. Experiments performed with a solution of CuSO4 give results which are almost in good agreement with the analytical and the numerical results. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.