Electric Buoyancy-driven convection in stable and unstable thermal stratifications

Abstract

Thermo-electro-convective modes induced by a dielectrophoretic force in a differentially heated horizontal rectangular cavity have been investigated using direct numerical simulations in stable and unstable thermal stratifications. The variation of the electric tension applied to the plates of the cavity leads to multiple modes under microgravity as well as under both stable and unstable stratifications in terrestrial conditions. An effective electric Rayleigh number incorporating the effects of both the electric potential and the thermal stratification has been introduced in order to analyze the heat transfer induced by thermoelectric convection, leading to a unique curve of the variation of the Nusselt number with the effective electric Rayleigh number. The results can be used for modeling the heat transfer in microfluidic devices where the Archimedean buoyancy is very weak or to simulate natural convection at any planet using experiments performed on the Earth.