The PI will carry out a series of laboratory experiments on thermal convection in two superposed fluid layers with different densities and viscosities. The density and viscosity of the working fluid will be controlled by varying the concentrations respectively of salt and cellulose (Natrosol) in aqueous solution. The most important advantage of this technique is that the density and viscosity can be varied independently, which was not possible in previous experimental studies. The primary goals of the experiments are (1) to determine the conditions under which thermal and mechanical coupling between the layers occurs,a nd (2) to derive scaling laws for quantities (e.g., Nusselt number and mixing rate) which describes the global evolution of the system.
