Laser Schlieren device was established to observe Rayleigh-Bénard-Marangoni effect produced in thick liquid depth by the diffusion of binary liquid mixtures.A recorder and a camera separately recorded dynamic and static convective flow patterns during experiment.According to different signs of Ma number and Ra number,different binary liquid mixtures were selected to investigate the RBM effect induced by different driven mechanism including density gradient or surface tension gradient or combination of both.Qualitative analysis to experiment results was presented.
Flow and concentration fields of liquid phase in a gas-liquid contacting system are simulated to showthe Rayleigh convection by utilizing the finite-element method. The Schlieren images in CO2-ethanol system provided direct visual verification of the present simulation, and the simulated results were well consistent with theexperimental observation. The influence of the Rayleigh convection on mass transfer is analyzed qualitatively andquantitatively based on the simulated and the experimental results.
