Binary-Mixture Convection in Connected Channels Heated from Below

Supercritical binary-mixture flows in connected channels of finite depth are studied theoretically and experimentally. It is shown that, in contrast to uniform fluids, in the mixture the convection excitation is "hard" and specific transient flows and oscillation regimes are observed. A mechanism explaining the phenomena observed is proposed and confirmed by a theoretical solution of the problem. The amplitude curves and the channel distributions of the velocity, temperature, and admixture concentration are obtained. These illustrate the competition between the thermodiffusion and thermo-gravitational convection mechanisms.