scholarly journals Prandtl number dependence of the small-scale properties in turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard convection

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shashwat Bhattacharya ◽  
Mahendra K. Verma ◽  
Ravi Samtaney
2011 ◽  
Vol 676 ◽  
pp. 5-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
STEPHAN WEISS ◽  
GUENTER AHLERS

Measurements of the Nusselt number and properties of the large-scale circulation (LSC) are presented for turbulent Rayleigh–Bénard convection in water-filled cylindrical containers (Prandtl number Pr = 4.38) with aspect ratio Γ = 0.50. They cover the range 2 × 108 ≲ Ra ≲ 1 × 1011 of the Rayleigh number Ra. We confirm the occurrence of a double-roll state (DRS) of the LSC and focus on the statistics of the transitions between the DRS and a single-roll state (SRS). The fraction of the run time when the SRS existed varied continuously from about 0.12 near Ra = 2 × 108 to about 0.8 near Ra = 1011, while the fraction of the run time when the DRS could be detected changed from about 0.4 to about 0.06 over the same range of Ra. We determined separately the Nusselt number of the SRS and the DRS, and found the former to be larger than the latter by about 1.6% (0.9%) at Ra = 1010 (1011). We report a contribution to the dynamics of the SRS from a torsional oscillation similar to that observed for cylindrical samples with Γ = 1.00. Results for a number of statistical properties of the SRS are reported, and some are compared with the cases Γ = 0.50, Pr = 0.67 and Γ = 1.00, Pr = 4.38. We found that genuine cessations of the SRS were extremely rare and occurred only about 0.3 times per day, which is less frequent than for Γ = 1.00; however, the SRS was disrupted frequently by roll-state transitions and other less well-defined events. We show that the time derivative of the LSC plane orientation is a stochastic variable which, at constant LSC amplitude, is Gaussian distributed. Within the context of the LSC model of Brown & Ahlers (Phys. Fluids, vol. 20, 2008b, art. 075101), this demonstrates that the stochastic force due to the small-scale fluctuations that is driving the LSC dynamics has a Gaussian distribution.


2006 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. V. Levina ◽  
I. A. Burylov

Abstract. A numerical approach is substantiated for searching for the large-scale alpha-like instability in thermoconvective turbulence. The main idea of the search strategy is the application of a forcing function which can have a physical interpretation. The forcing simulates the influence of small-scale helical turbulence generated in a rotating fluid with internal heat sources and is applied to naturally induced fully developed convective flows. The strategy is tested using the Rayleigh-Bénard convection in an extended horizontal layer of incompressible fluid heated from below. The most important finding is an enlargement of the typical horizontal scale of the forming helical convective structures accompanied by a cells merging, an essential increase in the kinetic energy of flows and intensification of heat transfer. The results of modeling allow explaining how the helical feedback can work providing the non-zero mean helicity generation and the mutual intensification of horizontal and vertical circulation, and demonstrate how the energy of the additional helical source can be effectively converted into the energy of intensive large-scale vortex flow.


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