Enhanced Vertical Inhomogeneity in Turbulent Rotating Convection

In this Letter we report experimental evidence that rotation enhances vertical inhomogeneity in turbulent convection, in spite of the increased columnar flow ordering under rotation. Measurements using stereoscopic particle image velocimetry have been carried out on turbulent rotating convection in water. At constant Rayleigh number Ra=1.11×109 several rotation rates have been used, so that the Rossby number takes values from Ro=[infinity] (no rotation) to 0.09 (strong rotation). The three-component velocity data, obtained at two vertical positions, are used to investigate the anisotropy of the flow through the invariants of the Reynolds-stress anisotropy tensor and the Lumley triangle, as well as to correlate the vertical velocity and vorticity. In the center plane rotation causes the turbulence to be “rodlike,” while closer to the top plate a trend toward isotropy is observed

Heat transfer in turbulent rotating convection

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Heat flux intensification by vortical flow localization in rotating convection

The effect of rotation on turbulent convective flow between parallel plates has been assessed with direct numerical simulations. With increasing rotation-rate an interesting transition is observed in the vertical-velocity skewness. This transition indicates a localization of motion directed away from the wall and correlates well with changes observed in the heat flux, as well as in the thermal and viscous boundary layer thicknesses. The formation of localized intense vortical structures provides for intensified vertical heat transport through Ekman pumping. At higher rotation-rates this is counteracted by the inhibition of vertical motion by rotation as expressed in the geostrophic thermal-wind balance

Heat transport and flow structure in rotating Rayleigh-B\'enard convection

Here we summarize the results from our direct numerical simulations (DNS) and experimental measurements on rotating Rayleigh-B\'enard (RB) convection. Our experiments and simulations are performed in cylindrical samples with an aspect ratio \Gamma varying from 1/2 to 2. Here \Gamma=D/L, where D and L are the diameter and height of the sample, respectively. When the rotation rate is increased, while a fixed temperature difference between the hot bottom and cold top plate is maintained, a sharp increase in the heat transfer is observed before the heat transfer drops drastically at stronger rotation rates. Here we focus on the question of how the heat transfer enhancement with respect to the non-rotating case depends on the Rayleigh number Ra, the Prandtl number Pr, and the rotation rate, indicated by the Rossby number Ro. Special attention will be given to the influence of the aspect ratio on the rotation rate that is required to get heat transport enhancement. In addition, we will discuss the relation between the heat transfer and the large scale flow structures that are formed in the different regimes of rotating RB convection and how the different regimes can be identified in experiments and simulations.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figure

On the Reynolds number scaling of vorticity production at no-slip walls during vortex-wall collisions

Recently, numerical studies revealed two different scaling regimes of the peak enstrophy Z and palinstrophy P during the collision of a dipole with a no-slip wall [Clercx and van Heijst, Phys. Rev. E 65, 066305, 2002]: Z ∝ Re0.8 and P ∝ Re2.25 for 5 × 102 ≤ Re ≤ 2 × 104 and Z ∝ Re0.5 and P ∝ Re1.5 for Re ≥ 2 × 104 (with Re based on the velocity and size of the dipole). A critical Reynolds number Rec(here, Rec ≈ 2 × 104) is identified below which the interaction time of the dipole with the boundary layer depends on the kinematic viscosity ν. The oscillating plate as a boundary-layer problem can then be used to mimick the vortex-wall interaction and the following scaling relations are obtained: Z ∝ Re^3/4, P ∝ Re^9/4, and dP/dt ∝ Re11/4 in agreement with the numerically obtained scaling laws. For Re ≥ Rec the interaction time of the dipole with the boundary layer becomes independent of the kinematic viscosity and, applying flat-plate boundary-layer theory, this yields: Z ∝ Re1/2 and P ∝ Re3/2

Alternative statistical-mechanical descriptions of decaying two-dimensional turbulence in terms of "patches" and "points"

Numerical and analytical studies of decaying, two-dimensional (2D) Navier-Stokes (NS) turbulence at high Reynolds numbers are reported. The effort is to determine computable distinctions between two different formulations of maximum entropy predictions for the decayed, late-time state. Both formulations define an entropy through a somewhat ad hoc discretization of vorticity to the "particles" of which statistical mechanical methods are employed to define an entropy, before passing to a mean-field limit. In one case, the particles are delta-function parallel "line" vortices ("points" in two dimensions), and in the other, they are finite-area, mutually-exclusive convected "patches" of vorticity which in the limit of zero area become "points." We use time-dependent, spectral-method direct numerical simulation of the Navier-Stokes equations to see if initial conditions which should relax to different late-time states under the two formulations actually do so.Comment: 21 pages, 24 figures: submitted to "Physics of Fluids

Benchmark computations of normal and oblique dipole-wall collisions with a no-slip wall

Benchmark results are reported of two separate sets of numerical experiments on the collision of a dipole with a no-slip boundary at several Reynolds numbers. One set of numerical simulations is performed with a finite differences code while the other set concerns simulations conducted with a Chebyshev pseudospectral code. Well-defined initial and boundary conditions are used and the accuracy and convergence of the numerical solutions have been investigated by inspection of several global quantities like the total kinetic energy, the enstrophy and the total angular momentum of the flow, and the vorticity distribution at the no-slip boundaries. It is found that the collision of the dipole with the no-slip wall and the subsequent flow evolution is dramatically influenced by small-scale vorticity produced during and after the collision process. The trajectories of several coherent vortices are tracked during the simulation and show that in particular underresolved high-amplitude vorticity patches near the no-slip walls are potentially responsible for deteriorating accuracy of the computations. Our numerical simulations clearly indicate that it is extremely difficult to obtain mode or grid convergence for this seemingly rather simple two-dimensional vortex-wall interaction problem

Optimal Prandtl number for heat transfer in rotating Rayleigh-Benard convection

Numerical data for the heat transfer as a function of the Prandtl (Pr) and Rossby (Ro) numbers in turbulent rotating Rayleigh-Benard convection are presented for Rayleigh number Ra = 10^8. When Ro is fixed the heat transfer enhancement with respect to the non-rotating value shows a maximum as function of Pr. This maximum is due to the reduced efficiency of Ekman pumping when Pr becomes too small or too large. When Pr becomes small, i.e. for large thermal diffusivity, the heat that is carried by the vertical vortices spreads out in the middle of the cell, and Ekman pumping thus becomes less efficient. For higher Pr the thermal boundary layers (BLs) are thinner than the kinetic BLs and therefore the Ekman vortices do not reach the thermal BL. This means that the fluid that is sucked into the vertical vortices is colder than for lower Pr which limits the efficiency of the upwards heat transfer.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figure