Experiments on double-diffusive sugar–salt fingers at high stability ratio

In a series of laboratory experiments the growth of double-diffusive salt fingers from an initial configuration of two homogeneous reservoirs with salt in the lower and sugar in the upper layer was investigated. For most of the experiments the stability ratio was between 2.5 and 3, where the latter value is at the upper limit (the ratio of salt to sugar diffusivities) for which fingers can exist. In these experiments long slender fingers are generated at the interface. Essentially all theories or physical bases for models of salt fingers presuppose such a configuration of long fingers. Our measurements show that the length of fingers at high stability ratio increases with time like t1/2, with a coefficient that is consistent with the diffusive spread of the faster diffusing component (salt). When the initial stability ratio is closer to unity, fingers penetrate into the reservoirs very rapidly carrying with them large anomalies of salt and sugar which give rise to convective overturning of the reservoirs. The convection sweeps away the ends of the fingers, and when it is intense enough (as it is when the sugar anomaly is large) it can reduce the finger height to a value less than the width. After this initial phase the finger length grows linearly with time as has been found in previous studies. These results show that salt fingers can evolve in quite different ways depending on the initial stability ratio and must cast doubt on the use of simple similarity arguments to parameterize the heat and salt fluxes produced by fingers.