Stability transitions and turbulence in horizontal convection

2014 ◽  
Vol 751 ◽  
pp. 698-724 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bishakhdatta Gayen ◽  
Ross W. Griffiths ◽  
Graham O. Hughes

AbstractRecent results have shown that convection forced by a temperature gradient along one horizontal boundary of a rectangular domain at a large Rayleigh number can be turbulent in parts of the flow field. However, the conditions for onset of turbulence, the dependence of flow and heat transport on Rayleigh number, and the roles of large and small scales in the flow, have not been established. We use three-dimensional direct numerical simulation (DNS) and large-eddy simulation (LES) over a wide range of Rayleigh numbers,$\def \xmlpi #1{}\def \mathsfbi #1{\boldsymbol {\mathsf {#1}}}\let \le =\leqslant \let \leq =\leqslant \let \ge =\geqslant \let \geq =\geqslant \def \Pr {\mathit {Pr}}\def \Fr {\mathit {Fr}}\def \Rey {\mathit {Re}}Ra\sim 10^8\mbox{--}10^{15}$, for Prandtl number$Pr=5$and a small aspect ratio, and show that a sequence of several stability transitions at$Ra \sim 10^{10}\mbox{--} 10^{11}$defines a change from laminar to turbulent flow. The Prandtl number dependence too is examined at$Ra = 5.86 \times 10^{11}$. At the smallest$Ra$considered the thermal boundary layer is characterized by a balance of viscous stress and buoyancy, whereas inertia and buoyancy dominate in the large-$Ra$regime. The change in the momentum balance is accompanied by turbulent enhancement of the overall heat transfer, although both laminar and turbulent regimes give$Nu\sim Ra^{1/5}$. The results support both viscous and inviscid theoretical scaling models from previous work. The mechanical energy budget for an intermediate range of Rayleigh numbers above onset of instability ($10^{10}<Ra<10^{13}$) reveals that the small scales of motion are produced predominantly by thermal convection, whereas at$Ra \ge 10^{14}$shear instability of the large-scale flow begins to play a dominant role in sustaining the small-scale turbulence. Extrapolation to ocean conditions requires knowledge of the inertial regime identified here, but the simulations show that the corresponding asymptotic balance has not been fully realized by$Ra \sim 10^{15}$.

1999 ◽  
Vol 381 ◽  
pp. 27-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARK P. DYKO ◽  
KAMBIZ VAFAI ◽  
A. KADER MOJTABI

A numerical and experimental study of buoyancy-driven flow in the annulus between two horizontal coaxial cylinders at Rayleigh numbers approaching and exceeding the critical values is presented. The stability of the flow is investigated using linear theory and the energy method. Theoretical predictions of the critical Rayleigh number for onset of secondary flows are obtained for a wide range of radius ratio R and are verified by comparison with results of previous experimental studies. A subcritical Rayleigh number which provides a necessary condition for global flow stability is also determined. The three-dimensional transient equations of fluid flow and heat transfer are solved to study the manifestation of instabilities within annuli having impermeable endwalls, which are encountered in various applications. For the first time, a thorough examination of the development of spiral vortex secondary flow within a moderate gap annulus and its interaction with the primary flow is performed for air. Simulations are conducted to investigate factors influencing the size and number of post-transitional vortex cells. The evolution of stable three-dimensional flow and temperature fields with increasing Rayleigh number in a large gap annulus is also studied. The distinct flow structures which coexist in the large gap annulus at high Rayleigh numbers preceding transition to oscillatory flow, including transverse vortices at the end walls which have not been previously identified, are established numerically and experimentally. The solutions for the large-gap annulus are compared to those for the moderate-gap case to clarify fundamental differences in behaviour. Heat transfer results in the form of local Nusselt number distributions are presented for both the moderate- and large-gap cases. Results from a series of experiments performed with air to obtain data for validation of the numerical scheme and further information on the flow stability are presented. Additionally, the change from a crescent-shaped flow pattern to a unicellular pattern with centre of rotation at the top of the annulus is investigated numerically and experimentally for a Prandtl number of 100. Excellent agreement between the numerical and experimental results is shown for both Prandtl numbers studied. The present work provides, for the first time, quantitative three-dimensional descriptions of spiral convection within a moderate-gap annulus containing air, flow structures preceding oscillation in a large-gap annulus for air, and unicellular flow development in a large-gap annulus for large Prandtl number fluids.


2000 ◽  
Vol 663 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Samper ◽  
R. Juncosa ◽  
V. Navarro ◽  
J. Delgado ◽  
L. Montenegro ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTFEBEX (Full-scale Engineered Barrier EXperiment) is a demonstration and research project dealing with the bentonite engineered barrier designed for sealing and containment of waste in a high level radioactive waste repository (HLWR). It includes two main experiments: an situ full-scale test performed at Grimsel (GTS) and a mock-up test operating since February 1997 at CIEMAT facilities in Madrid (Spain) [1,2,3]. One of the objectives of FEBEX is the development and testing of conceptual and numerical models for the thermal, hydrodynamic, and geochemical (THG) processes expected to take place in engineered clay barriers. A significant improvement in coupled THG modeling of the clay barrier has been achieved both in terms of a better understanding of THG processes and more sophisticated THG computer codes. The ability of these models to reproduce the observed THG patterns in a wide range of THG conditions enhances the confidence in their prediction capabilities. Numerical THG models of heating and hydration experiments performed on small-scale lab cells provide excellent results for temperatures, water inflow and final water content in the cells [3]. Calculated concentrations at the end of the experiments reproduce most of the patterns of measured data. In general, the fit of concentrations of dissolved species is better than that of exchanged cations. These models were later used to simulate the evolution of the large-scale experiments (in situ and mock-up). Some thermo-hydrodynamic hypotheses and bentonite parameters were slightly revised during TH calibration of the mock-up test. The results of the reference model reproduce simultaneously the observed water inflows and bentonite temperatures and relative humidities. Although the model is highly sensitive to one-at-a-time variations in model parameters, the possibility of parameter combinations leading to similar fits cannot be precluded. The TH model of the “in situ” test is based on the same bentonite TH parameters and assumptions as for the “mock-up” test. Granite parameters were slightly modified during the calibration process in order to reproduce the observed thermal and hydrodynamic evolution. The reference model captures properly relative humidities and temperatures in the bentonite [3]. It also reproduces the observed spatial distribution of water pressures and temperatures in the granite. Once calibrated the TH aspects of the model, predictions of the THG evolution of both tests were performed. Data from the dismantling of the in situ test, which is planned for the summer of 2001, will provide a unique opportunity to test and validate current THG models of the EBS.


2018 ◽  
Vol 856 ◽  
pp. 135-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. T. Salesky ◽  
W. Anderson

A number of recent studies have demonstrated the existence of so-called large- and very-large-scale motions (LSM, VLSM) that occur in the logarithmic region of inertia-dominated wall-bounded turbulent flows. These regions exhibit significant streamwise coherence, and have been shown to modulate the amplitude and frequency of small-scale inner-layer fluctuations in smooth-wall turbulent boundary layers. In contrast, the extent to which analogous modulation occurs in inertia-dominated flows subjected to convective thermal stratification (low Richardson number) and Coriolis forcing (low Rossby number), has not been considered. And yet, these parameter values encompass a wide range of important environmental flows. In this article, we present evidence of amplitude modulation (AM) phenomena in the unstably stratified (i.e. convective) atmospheric boundary layer, and link changes in AM to changes in the topology of coherent structures with increasing instability. We perform a suite of large eddy simulations spanning weakly ($-z_{i}/L=3.1$) to highly convective ($-z_{i}/L=1082$) conditions (where$-z_{i}/L$is the bulk stability parameter formed from the boundary-layer depth$z_{i}$and the Obukhov length $L$) to investigate how AM is affected by buoyancy. Results demonstrate that as unstable stratification increases, the inclination angle of surface layer structures (as determined from the two-point correlation of streamwise velocity) increases from$\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FE}\approx 15^{\circ }$for weakly convective conditions to nearly vertical for highly convective conditions. As$-z_{i}/L$increases, LSMs in the streamwise velocity field transition from long, linear updrafts (or horizontal convective rolls) to open cellular patterns, analogous to turbulent Rayleigh–Bénard convection. These changes in the instantaneous velocity field are accompanied by a shift in the outer peak in the streamwise and vertical velocity spectra to smaller dimensionless wavelengths until the energy is concentrated at a single peak. The decoupling procedure proposed by Mathiset al.(J. Fluid Mech., vol. 628, 2009a, pp. 311–337) is used to investigate the extent to which amplitude modulation of small-scale turbulence occurs due to large-scale streamwise and vertical velocity fluctuations. As the spatial attributes of flow structures change from streamwise to vertically dominated, modulation by the large-scale streamwise velocity decreases monotonically. However, the modulating influence of the large-scale vertical velocity remains significant across the stability range considered. We report, finally, that amplitude modulation correlations are insensitive to the computational mesh resolution for flows forced by shear, buoyancy and Coriolis accelerations.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuan Yuan ◽  
Lei Lin

Satellite image time series (SITS) classification is a major research topic in remote sensing and is relevant for a wide range of applications. Deep learning approaches have been commonly employed for SITS classification and have provided state-of-the-art performance. However, deep learning methods suffer from overfitting when labeled data is scarce. To address this problem, we propose a novel self-supervised pre-training scheme to initialize a Transformer-based network by utilizing large-scale unlabeled data. In detail, the model is asked to predict randomly contaminated observations given an entire time series of a pixel. The main idea of our proposal is to leverage the inherent temporal structure of satellite time series to learn general-purpose spectral-temporal representations related to land cover semantics. Once pre-training is completed, the pre-trained network can be further adapted to various SITS classification tasks by fine-tuning all the model parameters on small-scale task-related labeled data. In this way, the general knowledge and representations about SITS can be transferred to a label-scarce task, thereby improving the generalization performance of the model as well as reducing the risk of overfitting. Comprehensive experiments have been carried out on three benchmark datasets over large study areas. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method, leading to a classification accuracy increment up to 1.91% to 6.69%. <div><b>This work has been submitted to the IEEE for possible publication. Copyright may be transferred without notice, after which this version may no longer be accessible.</b></div>


Oceanography ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-75
Author(s):  
Michel Boufadel ◽  
◽  
Annalisa Bracco ◽  
Eric Chassignet ◽  
Shuyi Chen ◽  
...  

Physical transport processes such as the circulation and mixing of waters largely determine the spatial distribution of materials in the ocean. They also establish the physical environment within which biogeochemical and other processes transform materials, including naturally occurring nutrients and human-made contaminants that may sustain or harm the region’s living resources. Thus, understanding and modeling the transport and distribution of materials provides a crucial substrate for determining the effects of biological, geological, and chemical processes. The wide range of scales in which these physical processes operate includes microscale droplets and bubbles; small-scale turbulence in buoyant plumes and the near-surface “mixed” layer; submesoscale fronts, convergent and divergent flows, and small eddies; larger mesoscale quasi-geostrophic eddies; and the overall large-scale circulation of the Gulf of Mexico and its interaction with the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea; along with air-sea interaction on longer timescales. The circulation and mixing processes that operate near the Gulf of Mexico coasts, where most human activities occur, are strongly affected by wind- and river-induced currents and are further modified by the area’s complex topography. Gulf of Mexico physical processes are also characterized by strong linkages between coastal/shelf and deeper offshore waters that determine connectivity to the basin’s interior. This physical connectivity influences the transport of materials among different coastal areas within the Gulf of Mexico and can extend to adjacent basins. Major advances enabled by the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative in the observation, understanding, and modeling of all of these aspects of the Gulf’s physical environment are summarized in this article, and key priorities for future work are also identified.


2016 ◽  
Vol 144 (4) ◽  
pp. 1407-1421 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael L. Waite

Abstract Many high-resolution atmospheric models can reproduce the qualitative shape of the atmospheric kinetic energy spectrum, which has a power-law slope of −3 at large horizontal scales that shallows to approximately −5/3 in the mesoscale. This paper investigates the possible dependence of model energy spectra on the vertical grid resolution. Idealized simulations forced by relaxation to a baroclinically unstable jet are performed for a wide range of vertical grid spacings Δz. Energy spectra are converged for Δz 200 m but are very sensitive to resolution with 500 m ≤ Δz ≤ 2 km. The nature of this sensitivity depends on the vertical mixing scheme. With no vertical mixing or with weak, stability-dependent mixing, the mesoscale spectra are artificially amplified by low resolution: they are shallower and extend to larger scales than in the converged simulations. By contrast, vertical hyperviscosity with fixed grid-scale damping rate has the opposite effect: underresolved spectra are spuriously steepened. High-resolution spectra are converged except for the stability-dependent mixing case, which are damped by excessive mixing due to enhanced shear over a wide range of horizontal scales. It is shown that converged spectra require resolution of all vertical scales associated with the resolved horizontal structures: these include quasigeostrophic scales for large-scale motions with small Rossby number and the buoyancy scale for small-scale motions at large Rossby number. It is speculated that some model energy spectra may be contaminated by low vertical resolution, and it is recommended that vertical-resolution sensitivity tests always be performed.


2018 ◽  
Vol 856 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Borgnino ◽  
G. Boffetta ◽  
F. De Lillo ◽  
M. Cencini

We study the dynamics and the statistics of dilute suspensions of gyrotactic swimmers, a model for many aquatic motile microorganisms. By means of extensive numerical simulations of the Navier–Stokes equations at different Reynolds numbers, we investigate preferential sampling and small-scale clustering as a function of the swimming (stability and speed) and shape parameters, considering in particular the limits of spherical and rod-like particles. While spherical swimmers preferentially sample local downwelling flow, for elongated swimmers we observe a transition from downwelling to upwelling regions at sufficiently high swimming speed. The spatial distribution of both spherical and elongated swimmers is found to be fractal at small scales in a wide range of swimming parameters. The direct comparison between the different shapes shows that spherical swimmers are more clusterized at small stability and speed numbers, while for large values of the parameters elongated cells concentrate more. The relevance of our results for phytoplankton swimming in the ocean is briefly discussed.


Author(s):  
MJ Schollerer ◽  
J Kosmann ◽  
D Holzhüter ◽  
C Bello-Larroche ◽  
C Hühne

Bonding is known for its wide range of advantages over bolted joints when joining different materials together. However, the advantages e.g. of homogeneous load distribution can quickly be lost in case of overload. For this reason, the load occurring in the adhesive is reduced by constructive measures far below the yield stress of the adhesive, which leads to a conservative joint design. And to be on the safe side, a few “chicken rivets” are then placed again. This problem is particularly well known in aviation. Highly loaded components are structurally bonded by a combination of rivets and adhesive in order to underline the advantages of structural adhesive bonding with the safety of the well-known bolted joints. Known as fail-safe design, this concept is damage tolerant and more robust against manufacturing defects through a secured double load path.  Especially when joining fiber-reinforced composites, bolts weaken the adherends of the joint and only contribute to load transfer when the brittle adhesive fails. With the help of Surface Toughening, a boltless technique for reducing stress concentrations and arresting cracks in adhesive bonded joints is available. This work describes the industrial application of this technique. Starting with coupon tests and a small scale demonstrator to ensure the compatibility with industrial manufacturing processes, such as infusion and prepreg manufacturing, a large scale demonstrator of a 2 m carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) - HTP leading edge with hybrid laminar flow control is manufactured by the industrial partner AERnnova. Verifying a simple and cost-effective application of the technology, Surface Toughening enables robust bonded joints with a minimum impact on today's process of adhesive bonding.


2019 ◽  
Vol 867 ◽  
pp. 146-194 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. L. Richard ◽  
A. Duran ◽  
B. Fabrèges

We derive a two-dimensional depth-averaged model for coastal waves with both dispersive and dissipative effects. A tensor quantity called enstrophy models the subdepth large-scale turbulence, including its anisotropic character, and is a source of vorticity of the average flow. The small-scale turbulence is modelled through a turbulent-viscosity hypothesis. This fully nonlinear model has equivalent dispersive properties to the Green–Naghdi equations and is treated, both for the optimization of these properties and for the numerical resolution, with the same techniques which are used for the Green–Naghdi system. The model equations are solved with a discontinuous Galerkin discretization based on a decoupling between the hyperbolic and non-hydrostatic parts of the system. The predictions of the model are compared to experimental data in a wide range of physical conditions. Simulations were run in one-dimensional and two-dimensional cases, including run-up and run-down on beaches, non-trivial topographies, wave trains over a bar or propagation around an island or a reef. A very good agreement is reached in every cases, validating the predictive empirical laws for the parameters of the model. These comparisons confirm the efficiency of the present strategy, highlighting the enstrophy as a robust and reliable tool to describe wave breaking even in a two-dimensional context. Compared with existing depth-averaged models, this approach is numerically robust and adds more physical effects without significant increase in numerical complexity.


2000 ◽  
Vol 422 ◽  
pp. 141-166 ◽  
Author(s):  
YI-CHUNG SU ◽  
JACOB N. CHUNG

A comprehensive numerical study on the linear stability of mixed-convection flow in a vertical pipe with constant heat flux is presented with particular emphasis on the instability mechanism and the Prandtl number effect. Three Prandtl numbers representative of different regimes in the Prandtl number spectrum are employed to simulate the stability characteristics of liquid mercury, water and oil. The results suggest that mixed-convection flow in a vertical pipe can become unstable at low Reynolds number and Rayleigh numbers irrespective of the Prandtl number, in contrast to the isothermal case. For water, the calculation predicts critical Rayleigh numbers of 80 and −120 for assisted and opposed flows, which agree very well with experimental values of Rac = 76 and −118 (Scheele & Hanratty 1962). It is found that the first azimuthal mode is always the most unstable, which also agrees with the experimental observation that the unstable pattern is a double spiral flow. Scheele & Hanratty's speculation that the instability in assisted and opposed flows can be attributed to the appearance of inflection points and separation is true only for fluids with O(1) Prandtl number. Our study on the effect of the Prandtl number discloses that it plays an active role in buoyancy-assisted flow and is an indication of the viability of kinematic or thermal disturbances. It profoundly affects the stability of assisted flow and changes the instability mechanism as well. For assisted flow with Prandtl numbers less than 0.3, the thermal–shear instability is dominant. With Prandtl numbers higher than 0.3, the assisted-thermal–buoyant instability becomes responsible. In buoyancy-opposed flow, the effect of the Prandtl number is less significant since the flow is unstably stratified. There are three distinct instability mechanisms at work independent of the Prandtl number. The Rayleigh–Taylor instability is operative when the Reynolds number is extremely low. The opposed-thermal–buoyant instability takes over when the Reynolds number becomes higher. A still higher Reynolds number eventually leads the thermal–shear instability to dominate. While the thermal–buoyant instability is present in both assisted and opposed flows, the mechanism by which it destabilizes the flow is completely different.


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