Effective diffusion in laminar convective flows

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Abstract
The effective diffusion coefficient D* of a passive component, such as test particles, dye, temperature, magnetic flux, etc., is derived for motion in periodic two‐dimensional incompressible convective flow with characteristic velocity v and size d in the presence of an intrinsic local diffusivity D. Asymptotic solutions for effective diffusivity D*(P) in the large P limit, with P∼ vd/D, is shown to be of the form D*=cDP1/2 with c being a coefficient that is determined analytically. The constant c depends on the geometry of the convective cell and on an average of the flow speed along the separatrix. The asymptotic method of evaluation applies to both free boundary and rough boundary flow patterns and it is shown that the method can be extended to more complicated patterns such as the flows generated by rotating cylinders, as in the problem considered by Nadim, Cox, and Brenner [J. Fluid Mech. 1 6 4, 185 (1986)]. The diffusivity D* is readily calculated for small P, but the evaluation for arbitrary P requires numerical methods. Monte Carlo particle simulation codes are used to evaluate D* at arbitrary P, and thereby describe the transition for D* between the large and small P limits.

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