Convection is the collective motion of particles in a fluid and actually
encompasses both diffusion and advection.
Advection is the motion of particles along the bulk flow Diffusion is the net movement of particles from high concentration to low concentration e typically describe the above two using the partial differential equations: ∂ψ/∂t+∇⋅(uψ) =0= advection) ∂ψ/∂t =∇⋅(D∇ψ)( (diffusion) where ψψ is the quantity in consideration, uu is the fluid velocity and DD the diffusion coefficient(sometimes called the diffusivity). here are some nuances to the combined effect for convection (e.g., forced, natural, gravitational mechanisms), but the general definition for it is the total motion. As mentioned in the related question physics.stackexchange.com/q/24489/2451, convection generally involves the idea of a heat transfer in the flow which is responsible of the collective motion. – Lalylulelo Mar 5 '15 at 15:41 @Lalylulelo: You are speaking from a thermodynamics point of view. From a fluid dynamics point of view (which is mine, as it's the focus of my research), convection is as I defined it: the collective motion of a fluidregardless of cause. – Kyle Kanos Mar 5 '15 at 15:51 convection = diffusion + advection. That is, convection is the sum of fluid movement due to bulk transport of the media (like the water in a river flowing down a stream - advection) and the brownian/osmotic dispersion of a fluid constituent from high density to lower density regions (like a drop of ink slowly spreading out in a glass of water - diffusion). One easily visualized example of advection is the transport of ink dumped into a river. As the river flows, ink will move downstream in a "pulse" via advection, as the water's movement itself transports the ink. If added to a lake without significant bulk water flow, the ink would simply disperse outwards from its source in a diffusive manner, which is not advection. Note that as it moves downstream, the "pulse" of ink will also spread via diffusion. The sum of these processes is called convection . Convection is the heat transfer due to bulk movement of molecules within fluids such as gases and liquids, including molten rock (rheid). Convection takes place through advection, diffusion or both.
Diffusion is the net movement of molecules or atoms from a region of high
concentration to a region of low concentration as a result of random motion of the molecules or atoms. Diffusion is driven by a gradient in chemical potential of the diffusing species.