A reactive-flow model of phase separation in fluid binary mixtures with continuously ramped temperature

I. J. Benczik and J. Vollmer^a

Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Selforganization - Bunsenstr. 10, 37073 Göttingen, Germany, EU

^a juergen.vollmer@ds.mpg.de

Received: 29 March 2010
Accepted: 30 July 2010

Abstract

We suggest to revisit the phase separation of binary mixtures subjected to a sustained change of temperature from the point of view of reactive flows. Exploiting this new perspective, we describe the demixing dynamics by a spatial model of advection-reaction-diffusion completed with nucleation and coaguation of droplets. In this approach several features of the dynamics —in particular an oscillatory variation of the droplet density— become numerically and analytically accessible. Hence, this model helps to clarify why the oscillation frequency is hardly affected by the flow.