The study focuses on the 3D electro-hydrodynamic (EHD) instability for flow between to parallel electrodes with unipolar charge injection with and without cross-flow. Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM) with two-relaxation time (TRT) model is used to study flow pattern. In the absence of cross-flow, the base-state solution is hydrostatic, and the electric field is one-dimensional. With strong charge injection and high electrical Rayleigh number, the system exhibits electro-convective vortices. Disturbed by different perturbation patterns, such as rolling pattern, square pattern, and hexagon pattern, the flow patterns develop according to the most unstable modes. The growth rate and the unstable modes are examined using dynamic mode decomposition (DMD) of the transient numerical solutions. The interactions between the applied Couette and Poiseuille cross-flows and electroconvective vortices lead to the flow patterns change. When the cross-flow velocity is greater than a threshold value, the spanwise structures are suppressed; however, the cross-flow does not affect the streamwise patterns. The dynamics of the transition is analyzed by DMD. Hysteresis in the 3D to 2D transition is characterized by the non-dimensional parameter Y, a ratio of the coulombic force to viscous term in the momentum equation. The change from 3D to 2D structures enhances the convection marked by a significant increase in the electric Nusselt number.
Using numerical simulations of rapidly rotating Boussinesq convection in a Cartesian box, we study the formation of long-lived, large-scale, depth-invariant coherent structures. These structures, which consist of concentrated cyclones, grow to the horizontal size of the box, with velocities significantly larger than the convective motions. We vary the rotation rate, the thermal driving and the aspect ratio in order to determine the domain of existence of these large-scale vortices (LSV). We find that two conditions are required for their formation. First, the Rayleigh number, a meaure of the t…
Studying the atmospheric Planetary Boundary Layer (PBL) is crucial to understand the climate of a planet. The meteorological measurements by the instruments onboard InSight at a latitude of 4.5$^{\circ}$N make a uniquely rich dataset to study the active turbulent dynamics of the daytime PBL on Mars. Here we use the high-sensitivity continuous pressure, wind, temperature measurements in the first 400 sols of InSight operations (from northern late winter to midsummer) to analyze wind gusts, convective cells and vortices in Mars' daytime PBL. We compare InSight measurements to turbulence-resolvin…
The elliptical instability is an instability of elliptical streamlines, which can be excited by large-scale tidal flows in rotating fluid bodies, and excites inertial waves if the dimensionless tidal amplitude ($ε$) is sufficiently large. It operates in convection zones but its interactions with turbulent convection have not been studied in this context. We perform an extensive suite of Cartesian hydrodynamical simulations in wide boxes to explore the interactions of the elliptical instability and Rayleigh-Bénard convection. We find that geostrophic vortices generated by the elliptical instabi…
The precise mechanism that forms jets and large-scale vortices on the giant planets is unknown. An inverse cascade has been suggested. Alternatively, energy may be directly injected by small-scale convection. Our aim is to clarify whether an inverse cascade feeds zonal jets and large-scale eddies in a system of rapidly rotating, deep, geostrophic spherical-shell convection. We analyze the nonlinear scale-to-scale transfer of kinetic energy in such simulations as a function of the azimuthal wave number, m. We find that the main driving of the jets is associated with upscale transfer directly fr…
Motivated by understanding the dynamics of stellar and planetary interiors, we have performed a set of direct numerical simulations of Boussinesq convection in a rotating full sphere. The domain is internally heated with fixed temperature and stress-free boundary conditions, but fixed heat flux and no-slip boundary conditions are also briefly considered. We particularly focus on the large-scale coherent structures and the mean zonal flows that can develop in the system. At Prandtl number of unity, as the thermal forcing (measured by the Rayleigh number) is increased above the value for the ons…
Planetary rotation organizes fluid motions into coherent, long-lived swirls, known as large-scale vortices (LSVs), which play an important role in the dynamics and long-term evolution of geophysical and astrophysical fluids. Here, using direct numerical simulations, we show that LSVs in rapidly rotating mixed convective and stably stratified fluids, which approximates the two-layer, turbulent-stratified dynamics of many geophysical and astrophysical fluids, have a generic shape and that their size can be predicted. We show that LSVs emerge in the convection zone from upscale energy transfers a…
Numerical simulation of Electroconvective vortices behavior in the presence of Couette flow between two infinitely long electrodes is investigated. The two-relaxation-time Lattice Boltzmann Method with fast Poisson solver solves for the spatiotemporal distribution of flow field, electric field, and charge density. Couette cross-flow is applied to the solutions after the electroconvective vortices are established. Increasing cross-flow velocity deforms the vortices and eventually suppresses them when threshold values of shear stress are reached.
Traditional models of electrokinetic transport in porous media are based on homogenized material properties, which neglect any macroscopic effects of microscopic fluctuations. This perspective is taken not only for convenience, but also motivated by the expectation of irrotational electro-osmotic flow, proportional to the electric field, for uniformly charged surfaces (or constant zeta potential) in the limit of thin double layers. Here, we show that the inherent heterogeneity of porous media generally leads to macroscopic vortex patterns, which have important implications for convective trans…
We study the formation, longevity and breakdown of convective rings during impulsive spin-up in square and cylindrical containers using direct numerical simulations. The rings, which are axisymmetric alternating regions of up- and down-welling flow that can last for O (100) rotation times, were first demonstrated experimentally and arise due to a balance between Coriolis and viscous effects. We study the formation of these rings in the context of the Greenspan-Howard spin-up process, the disruption of which modifies ring formation and evolution. We show that, unless imprinted by boundary geome…
A new class of exact solutions of hydrodynamic equations for an incompressible fluid (gas) at the presence of a bulk sink and uprising vertical flows of matter is considered. The acceleration of the rotation velocity of classical non-stationary vortices is conditioned by the joint action of the convective and Coriolis hydrodynamic forces (accelerations), which appear due to the converging radial flows of the matter in the region of a bulk sink. It is shown that there exist velocity profiles that nullify viscous terms in the Navier-Stokes equations and represent a vortex structure with a "rigid…
The connection between the poloidal and the toroidal rotation of plasma in tokamak is important for the high confinement regimes, in particular in reactor regime. The sudden onset of closed convection structures in the poloidal section, due to the baroclinic production of vorticity, will sustain a fast increase of the poloidal velocity and a substantial effect on the toroidal rotation. However this is limited to the short time of the onset transition. In real plasma however there is random generation and suppression of convection cells and the sequence of these transient events can prove able …
Granular flows down inclined channels with smooth boundaries are common in nature and in the industry. Nevertheless, the common setup of flat boundaries has comparatively been much less investigated than the bumpy boundaries one, which is used by most experimental and numerical studies to avoid sliding effects. Using DEM numerical simulations with side walls we recover quantitatively experimental results. At larger angles we predict a rich behavior, including granular convection and inverted density profiles suggesting a Rayleigh-Bénard type of instability. In many aspects flows on a flat base…
Ring vortices are efficient at transporting fluid. They are often produced by ejecting a volume of fluid through a circular orifice. The impulse given to the vortex rings results in a propulsive force on the generator. Propulsive vortex rings have been widely studied and characterised. After four convective times, the vortex moves faster than the shear layer it originates from, and separates. This separation corresponds to a maximum in circulation and a maximal spread of the vorticity, quantified by the non-dimensional energy. The simultaneity of these three events obfuscates the causality bet…
This study offers an explanation of a recently observed effect of destabilization of free convective flows by weak rotation. After studying several models where flows are driven by a simultaneous action of convection and rotation, it is concluded that the destabilization is observed in the cases where centrifugal force acts against main convective circulation. At relatively low Prandtl numbers this counter action can split the main vortex into two counter rotating vortices, where the interaction leads to instability. At larger Prandtl numbers, the counter action of the centrifugal force steepe…
One of the most prominent dynamical features of turbulent, rapidly-rotating convection is the formation of large-scale coherent structures, driven by Reynolds stresses resulting from the small-scale convective flows. In spherical geometry, such structures consist of intense zonal flows that are invariant along the rotation axis. In planar geometry, long-lived, depth-invariant structures also form at large scales, but, in the absence of horizontal anisotropy, they consist of vortices that grow to the domain size. In this work, through the introduction of horizontal anisotropy into a numerical m…
We study the mixing in the presence of convective flow in a porous medium. Convection is characterized by the formation of vortices and stagnation points, where the fluid interface is stretched and compressed enhancing mixing. We analyze the behavior of the mixing dynamics in different scenarios using an interface deformation model. We show that the scalar dissipation rate, which is related to the dissolution fluxes, is controlled by interfacial processes, specifically the equilibrium between interface compression and diffusion, which depends on the flow field configuration. We consider differ…
Flow-induced deformation of thin structures coupled with convective heat transfer has potential applications in energy harvesting and is important for understanding functioning of several biological systems. We numerically demonstrate large-scale flow-induced deformation as an effective passive heat transfer enhancement technique. An in-house, strongly-coupled fluid-structure interaction (FSI) solver is employed in which flow and structure solvers are based on sharp-interface immersed boundary and finite element method, respectively. In the present work, we validate convective heat transfer mo…
Concentration gradients in a fluid along a reactive surface due to contrast in surface reactivity generate convective flows. These flows result from contributions by electro and diffusio osmotic phenomena. In this study we have analyzed reactive patterns that release and consume protons, analogous to bimetallic catalytic conversion of peroxide. Here, we present a simple analytical model that accurately predicts the induced potentials and consequent velocities in such systems over a wide range of input parameters. Our model is tested against direct numerical solutions to the coupled Poisson, Ne…
Several recent studies have demonstrated how large-scale vortices may arise spontaneously in rotating planar convection. Here we examine the dynamo properties of such flows in rotating Boussinesq convection. For moderate values of the magnetic Reynolds number ($100 \lesssim Rm \lesssim 550$, with $Rm$ based on the box depth and the convective velocity), a large-scale (i.e. system-size) magnetic field is generated. The amplitude of the magnetic energy oscillates in time, nearly out of phase with the oscillating amplitude of the large-scale vortex. The large-scale vortex is disrupted once the ma…
