Theoretical models for the thermo-gravitational separation process in porous media filled by N-component mixtures

Dimitri Mutschler (1) , Mohamed Aziz Larabi (2) , Abdelkader Mojtabi (2)

1 LMFA - Laboratoire de Mecanique des Fluides et d'Acoustique
2 IMFT - Institut de mécanique des fluides de Toulouse

The aim of this work is to present a theoretical analysis of the separation of an N-component mixture. In this study, two analytical models explaining the thermo-gravitational separation of components in N-component mixtures for vertical cavity filled by a porous medium are presented and assessed. The basic state and the separation are expressed in terms of the separation ratio, and the Lewis, cross-diffusion and Rayleigh numbers. Our computational analysis confirms that, for the given values of the mass fractions, thermodiffusion can be measured with a thermo-gravitational column, strongly supporting the experimentally determined transport coefficients.

Mots clés: Ternary mixture; Soret effect

Domaines: Mécanique des fluides [physics.class-ph]

Dimitri Mutschler, Mohamed Aziz Larabi, Abdelkader Mojtabi. Theoretical models for the thermo-gravitational separation process in porous media filled by N-component mixtures. European Physical Journal E: Soft matter and biological physics, 2017, 40 (4), pp.49. ⟨10.1140/epje/i2017-11538-0⟩. ⟨hal-01541317⟩