Traveling waves of a colloidal suspension in a closed cell.

Two-dimensional oscillatory flows in the convective cell filled with a colloidal suspension are investigated. We consider transient and permanent evolution scenarios of the traveling wave that were found in experimental investigation (Donzelli et al. in Phys Rev Lett 102:104503, 2009). The nanoparticle transport mechanisms (thermodiffusion and gravity settling) are analyzed and elucidated with the help of finite-difference numerical simulations for Hyflon MFA colloidal suspension. The spatiotemporal characteristics of the stable (permanent) traveling waves are determined. The dependence of the Rayleigh number on the Lewis number at the boundary of existence of the stable traveling wave is obtained.