Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 April 2006
This paper deals with the Soret separation of a binary mixture in a cylinder subjected to an axial temperature gradient. The study is connected to an experiment designed to measure the Soret coefficient of an AgI-KI mixture corresponding to a moderate Prandtl number (Pr = 0.6) and a high Schmidt number (Sc = 60). In such an experiment the species separation is often hidden by a mixing effect due to the buoyancy-driven convection generated by a horizontal temperature gradient induced by some defect of the heating system. Here, such a defect is simulated by a slight misorientation of the cell with respect to the vertical; a small inclination (γ = 1°) of the cell has been considered, but the results can be generalized for any other small γ. For situations corresponding to a top heating and a positive Soret parameter, S, two quite different regimes have been exhibited depending on the value of S. For moderate S, the induced solutal buoyancy balances the imposed thermal buoyancy, slowing down the flow and giving a good separation rate. For small S this balance does not exist (except in the centre), leading to a remixing of the species and thus to poor separation (the separation would be still worse for negative S). The smaller the (positive) Soret parameter is, the smaller the cell misorientation γ has to be to allow a good separation rate.