IMPURITY TRANSFER IN THE CASE OF CONVECTION OVER A THERMALLY
INHOMOGENEOUS HORIZONTAL SURFACE

L. Kh. Ingel'

UDC 532.529.2:551.558:551.510.42

Stationary disturbances introduced by convection (thermal 
circulations) over a thermally inhomogeneous horizontal surface into 
the background vertical distribution of a passive impurity have been 
investigated analytically in the linear approximation. It has been 
found that in the case of a strong stable stratification where vertical 
motions are suppressed and thermal circulations are "pressed" against 
the surface impurity-concentration, disturbances produced by them 
can, nonetheless, penetrate to high levels of the order of horizontal 
scales of thermal inhomogeneities. Even a very weak convection which 
has a slight effect on heat transfer and on the background temperature 
profile, can substantially influence the transfer of a slowly diffused 
impurity. It is noteworthy that the results in certain situations 
can be highly sensitive to the details of the boundary conditions 
at the lower boundary.

"Taifun" Science and Production Association, 4 Pobeda Str., Obninsk, 
Kaluga Region, 249038, Russia; email: lingel@obninsk.com. 
Translated from Inzhenerno-Fizicheskii Zhurnal, Vol. 81, No. 6, pp. 
1158-1163, November-December, 2008. Original article submitted 
June 6, 2007; revision submitted January 31, 2008.