Eur. Phys. J. E (2014) 37: 89
https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2014-14089-x

Regular Article

Soret separation in a binary liquid mixture near its critical temperature

¹ MRC, EP CP-165/62, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), av. F.D. Roosevelt, 50, 1050, Brussels, Belgium
² Institute of Continuous Media Mechanics UB RAS, 1, Koroleva str., 614013, Perm, Russia
³ Tomsk Polytechnic University, Tomsk, Russia

^* e-mail: jclegros@ulb.ac.be

Received: 15 July 2014
Revised: 3 September 2014
Accepted: 12 September 2014
Published online: 3 October 2014

Abstract

The values of transport coefficients near a critical point are typically enhanced compared to the values in the classical region far away from a critical point. We report on the impact of the asymptotic behavior of the mass diffusion near the critical region on the Soret separation of the components in a model binary mixture. Concentration patterns are numerically investigated in the case of a spatially varying temperature. The Soret separation in ordinary mixture leads to the establishing of a linear concentration distribution in a steady state. The presence of the critical point redistributes the concentration field, it creates a thin layer with sharp concentration change at the critical region which can be seen as a horizontal plateau on vertical profiles. Large concentration gradients are established across this layer. The analysis showed that the kinetic of the separation significantly depends on whether the critical temperature is inside or outside of the applied temperature region, which is T _cold ≤ T ≤ T _hot. Critical separation road is suggested for the case when T _cr is located inside this region, T _cold ≤ T _cr ≤ T _hot.