Three-Dimensional Numerical Simulation of Pure Solutocapillary Flow in a Shallow Annular Pool for Mixture Fluid with High Schmidt Number

In order to understand the characteristics of pure solutocapillary flow in a shallow annular pool subjected to a constant radial solutal gradient, a series of three-dimensional numerical simulations were performed. The annular pool was filled with the toluene/n-hexane mixture fluid with the Schmidt number of 142.8. The inner and outer cylinders were respectively maintained at low and high solutal concentrations. Aspect ratio of the annular pool is fixed at ε = 0.15 or 0.05. Results indicate that the solutocapillary flow is steady and axisymmetric at a small solutal capillary Reynolds number. The surface fluid flows radially from the inner cylinder toward the outer cylinder and a return flow exists near the bottom. With the increase of the solutal capillary Reynolds number, an axisymmetric oscillatory flow firstly appears and then becomes a three-dimensional oscillatory flow at ε = 0.15. Whereas at ε = 0.05 a direct transition from the steady and axisymmetric flow to the three-dimensional oscillatory flow is observed. Three types of the flow instabilities are the standing wave, hydrosolutal wave and source/sink type wave instabilities. Furthermore, the physical mechanism of the flow destabilization is analyzed.