In geo- and astrophysics, low Prandtl number convective flows often interact with magnetic fields. Although a static magnetic field acts as a stabilizing force on such flow fields, we find that self-organized convective flow structures reach an optimal state where the heat transport significantly increases and convective velocities reach the theoretical free-fall limit, i.e. the maximum possible velocity a fluid parcel can achieve when its potential buoyant energy is fully converted into kinetic energy. Our measurements show that the application of a static magnetic field leads to an anisotropic, highly ordered flow structure and a decrease of the turbulent fluctuations. When the magnetic field strength is increased beyond the optimum, Hartmann braking becomes dominant and leads to a reduction of the heat and momentum transport. The results are relevant for the understanding of magneto-hydrodynamic convective flows in planetary cores and stellar interiors in regions with strong toroidal magnetic fields oriented perpendicular to temperature gradients.
We invoke the concepts of magnetic boundary layer and magnetic Rayleigh number and use the magnetic energy dissipation rates in the bulk and the boundary layers to derive some scaling laws expressing how Nusselt number depends on magnetic Rayleigh number, Prandtl number and magnetic Prandtl number for the simple case of turbulent magnetohydrodynamic Rayleigh-Benard convection in the presence of uniform vertical magnetic field.
Comment on Similarity analysis in magnetohydrodynamics:effects of Hall and ion-slip currents on free convection flow and mass transfer of a gas past a semi-infinite vertical plate, A.A. Megahed, S.R. Komy, A.A. Afify [Acta Mechanica 151, 185-194 (2001)] In the above paper is investigated the boundary layer flow of an electrically conducting fluid over a vertical, stationary plate placed in a calm fluid. The effects of Hall and ion-slip currents are taken into account. The boundary layer equations are transformed into ordinary ones using a scaling group of transformations and subsequently are s…
In the above paper the author treats the boundary layer flow along a vertical flat plate, immersed in a Darcy Brinkman Forchheimer porous medium. The porosity and the permeability of the porous medium are variable across the boundary layer. In addition a magnetic field with constant strength is applied normal to the plate. The fluid temperature at the plate is constant and different from that of the ambient fluid. This temperature difference creates a buoyancy force and the flow is characterized as mixed convection. The partial differential equations of the boundary layer flow are transformed …
A numerical study of convection with stress-free boundary conditions in the presence of an imposed magnetic field that is tilted with respect to the direction of gravity is carried out in the limit of small magnetic Reynolds number. The dynamics are investigated over a range of Rayleigh number $Ra$ and Chandrasekhar numbers up to $Q = 2\times10^6$, with the tilt angle between the gravity vector and imposed magnetic field vector fixed at $45^{\circ}$. For a fixed value of $Q$ and increasing $Ra$, the convection dynamics can be broadly characterized by three primary flow regimes: (1) quasi-two-d…
Numerical simulations of convection in a layer filled with ideal gas are presented. The control parameters are chosen such that there is a significant variation of density of the gas in going from the bottom to the top of the layer. The relations between the Rayleigh, Peclet and Nusselt numbers depend on the density stratification. It is proposed to use a data reduction which accounts for the variable density by introducing into the scaling laws an effective density. The relevant density is the geometric mean of the maximum and minimum densities in the layer. A good fit to the data is then obt…
Thermal convection in an electrically conducting fluid (for example, a liquid metal) in the presence of a static magnetic field is considered in this chapter. The focus is on the extreme states of the flow, in which both buoyancy and Lorentz forces are very strong. It is argued that the instabilities occurring in such flows are often of unique and counter-intuitive nature due to the action of the magnetic field, which suppresses conventional turbulence and gives preference to two-dimensional instability modes not appearing in more conventional convection systems. Tools of numerical analysis su…
Three-dimensional turbulent magnetoconvection at a Rayleigh number of $Ra=10^7$ in liquid gallium at a Prandtl number $Pr=0.025$ is studied in a closed square cell for very strong external vertical magnetic fields $B_0$ in direct numerical simulations which apply the quasistatic approximation. As $B_0$ or equivalently the Hartmann number $Ha$ are increased, the convection flow that is highly turbulent in the absence of magnetic fields crosses the Chandrasekhar linear stability limit for which thermal convection is ceased in an infinitely extended layer and which can be assigned with a critical…
The problem of natural convection in a laterally heated three-dimensional cubic cavity under the action of an externally imposed magnetic field is revisited. Flows at the Rayleigh number Ra=10^6 and the Hartmann number Ha=100, and three different orientations of the magnetic field are considered. The problem is solved using two independent numerical methods based on the second order finite-volume discretization schemes on structured Cartesian grids. Convergence toward grid-independent results is examined versus the grid refinement and near-wall grid stretching. Converged benchmark-quality resu…
It is shown, using results of direct numerical simulations, that the spontaneous breaking of local reflectional symmetry (and corresponding localized kinetic and magnetic helicities) can dominate chaotic dynamics of the small-scale MHD dynamo in the Rayleigh-B{é}nard convection, in kinetically forced flows under strong stratification, in the near-surface solar convection, and in kinetically forced flows at large magnetic Reynolds numbers. The notions of deterministic and helical distributed chaos have been used for this purpose. The coexistence of large- and small-scale dynamo mechanisms and a…
Dynamics of a liquid drop falling through a quiescent medium of another liquid is investigated in external uniform electric field. The electrohydrodynamics of a drop is governed by inherent deformability of the drop (defined by capillary number), the electric field strength (defined by Masson number) and the surface charge convection (quantified by electric Reynolds number). Surface charge convection generates nonlinearilty in a electrohydrodynamics problem by coupling the electric field and flow field. In Stokes limit, most existing theoretical models either considered weak charge convection …
We use the machinery usually employed for studying the onset of Rayleigh--Bénard convection in hydro- and magnetohydro-dynamic settings to address the onset of convection induced by the magnetothermal instability and the heat-flux-buoyancy-driven-instability in the weakly-collisional magnetized plasma permeating the intracluster medium. Since most of the related numerical simulations consider the plasma being bounded between two `plates' on which boundary conditions are specified, our strategy provides a framework that could enable a more direct connection between analytical and numerical stud…
Coupled laboratory-numerical experiments of Rayleigh-Bénard convection (RBC) in liquid gallium subject to a vertical magnetic field are presented. The experiments are carried out in two cylindrical containers with diameter-to-height aspect ratio $Γ= 1.0$ and $2.0$ at varying thermal forcing (Rayleigh numbers $10^5 \lesssim Ra \lesssim 10^8$) and magnetic field strength (Chandrasekhar numbers $0\lesssim Ch \lesssim 3\times 10^5$). Laboratory measurements and numerical simulations confirm that magnetoconvection in our finite cylindrical tanks onsets via non-drifting wall-attached modes, in good …
Numerical simulations of quasi-static magnetoconvection with a vertical magnetic field are carried out up to a Chandrasekhar number of $Q=10^8$ over a broad range of Rayleigh numbers $Ra$. Three magnetoconvection regimes are identified: two of the regimes are magnetically-constrained in the sense that a leading-order balance exists between the Lorentz and buoyancy forces, whereas the third regime is characterized by unbalanced dynamics that is similar to non-magnetic convection. Each regime is distinguished by flow morphology, momentum and heat equation balances, and heat transport behavior. O…
A model for three-dimensional Rayleigh-Bénard convection in low-Prandtl-number fluids near onset with rigid horizontal boundaries in the presence of a uniform vertical magnetic field is constructed and analyzed in detail. The kinetic energy $K$, the convective entropy $Φ$ and the convective heat flux ($Nu-1$) show scaling behaviour with $ε= r-1$ near onset of convection, where $r$ is the reduced Rayleigh number. The model is also used to investigate various magneto-convective structures close to the onset. Straight rolls, which appear at the primary instability, become unstable with increase i…
We investigate the onset of convective instability and subsequent transitions near it in Rayleigh-Bénard convection (RBC) of electrically conducting low Prandtl-number (Pr) fluids in the simultaneous presence of rotation about the vertical axis and external uniform horizontal magnetic field with free-slip boundary conditions. Both three dimensional direct numerical simulations (DNS) and low dimensional modeling of the system have been performed for the investigation. DNS results show a plethora of patterns near the onset of convection for weak magnetic field. Most interestingly, the Nusselt nu…
The 3D thermal convection in the Boussinesq approximation with heating from below and dynamo in the cube are considered. We study dependence of the convection intensity and magnetic field generation on the latitude in $β$-plane approximation. It is shown that kinetic energy gradually increases from the poles to the equator more than order of magnitude. The model predicts the strong azimuthal thermal wind, which direction depends on the sign of the thermal convective fluctuations. The spatial scale of the arising flow is comparable to the scale of the physical domain. The magnetic energy increa…
Direct numerical simulations are carried out to study flow structure and transport properties in turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard convection in a cylindrical cell of aspect ratio one with an imposed axial magnetic field. Flows at the Prandtl number 0.025 and the Rayleigh and Hartmann numbers up to $10^9$ and 1400 are considered. The results are consistent with those of earlier experimental and numerical data. As anticipated, the heat transfer rate and kinetic energy are suppressed by strong magnetic field. At the same time, their growth with the Rayleigh number is found to be faster in flows at high …
In this article, the theoretical model on heat and momentum transfer for Rayleigh-Bénard convection in a vertical magnetic field by Zürner et al. (Phys. Rev. E 94, 043108 (2016)) is revisited. Using new data from recent experimental and numerical studies the model is simplified and extended to the full range of Hartmann numbers, reproducing the results of the Grossmann-Lohse theory in the limit of vanishing magnetic fields. The revised model is compared to experimental results in liquid metal magnetoconvection and shows that the heat transport is described satisfactorily. The momentum transpor…
We analyse the long-time evolution of the three-dimensional flow in a closed cubic turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard convection cell via a Koopman eigenfunction analysis. A data-driven basis derived from diffusion kernels known in machine learning is employed here to represent a regularized generator of the unitary Koopman group in the sense of a Galerkin approximation. The resulting Koopman eigenfunctions can be grouped into subsets in accordance with the discrete symmetries in a cubic box. In particular, a projection of the velocity field onto the first group of eigenfunctions reveals the four stabl…
Convection is the predominant mechanism by which energy and angular momentum are transported in the outer portion of the Sun. The resulting overturning motions are also the primary energy source for the solar magnetic field. An accurate solar dynamo model therefore requires a complete description of the convective motions, but these motions remain poorly understood. Studying stellar convection numerically remains challenging; it occurs within a parameter regime that is extreme by computational standards. The fluid properties of the convection zone are characterized in part by the Prandtl numbe…
The study investigates the problem of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) free convection over a non-isothermal axisymmetric body under the action of transverse magnetic field. The body is embedded in a porous medium saturated with electrically conducting non-Newtonian power law fluid. In order to obtain similarity solution, it is assumed that the viscosity of the fluid decays exponentially with temperature. The qualitative results are illustrated for a vertical flat plate, horizontal cylinder and sphere.
In this study we investigate the effects of turbulent convection on formation of large-scale inhomogeneous magnetic structures by means of Large-Eddy Simulation (LES) for convection in solar-type stars. The main idea of this study is the implementation of a new subgrid-scale model for the effective Lorentz force in a three-dimensional nonlinear radiative magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) code developed for simulating the upper solar convection zone and lower atmosphere. To this end we derived the energy budget equations, which include the effects of the subgrid-scale turbulence on the Lorentz-force, …
Spherical shell dynamo models based on rotating convection show that the flow within the tangent cylinder is dominated by an off-axis plume that extends from the inner core boundary to high latitudes and drifts westward. Earlier studies explained the formation of such a plume in terms of the effect of a uniform axial magnetic field that significantly increases the lengthscale of convection in a rotating plane layer. However, rapidly rotating dynamo simulations show that the magnetic field within the tangent cylinder has severe lateral inhomogeneities that may influence the onset of an isolated…
We investigate instabilities and chaos near the onset of Rayleigh-Bénard convection (RBC) of electrically conducting fluids with free-slip, perfectly electrically and thermally conducting boundary conditions in presence of uniform rotation about vertical axis and horizontal external magnetic field by considering zero Prandtl-number limit ($\mathrm{Pr} \rightarrow 0$). Direct numerical simulations (DNS) and low dimensional modeling of the system are done for the investigation. Values of the Chandrasekhar number ($\mathrm{Q}$) and the Taylor number ($\mathrm{Ta}$) are varied in the range $0 < \m…
Effect of Uniform and Non-uniform wall heating on Three-Dimensional Magneto-Hydrodynamics Natural Convection and Entropy Generation: A computational study using New Higher Order Super Compact Scheme
In this paper we seek to understand the timescale on which the photospheric motions on the Sun braid coronal magnetic field lines. This is a crucial ingredient for determining the viability of the braiding mechanism for explaining the high temperatures observed in the corona. We study the topological complexity induced in the coronal magnetic field, primarily using plasma motions extracted from magneto-convection simulations. This topological complexity is quantified using the field line winding, finite time topological entropy and passive scalar mixing. With these measures we contrast mixing …
The onset of convection in the form of magneto-inertial waves in a rotating fluid sphere permeated by a constant axial electric current is studied through a perturbation analysis. Explicit expressions for the dependence of the Rayleigh number on the azimuthal wavenumber are derived in the limit of high thermal diffusivity. Results for the case of thermally infinitely conducting boundaries and for the case of nearly thermally insulating boundaries are obtained.
Rayleigh-Bénard cells are one of the simplest systems to explore the laws of natural convection in the highly turbulent limit. However, at very high Rayleigh numbers (Ra > 1E12) and for Prandtl numbers of order one, experiments fall into two categories: some evidence a steep enhancement of the heat transfer while others do not. The origin of this apparent disagreement is presently unexplained. This puzzling situation motivated a systematic study of the triggering of the regime with an enhanced heat transfer, originally named the "Ultimate Regime" of convection. High accuracy heat transfer meas…
The prevalence and consequences of convection perpendicular to the plane of accretion discs have been discussed for several decades. Recent simulations combining convection and the magnetorotational instability have given fresh impetus to the debate, as the interplay of the two processes can enhance angular momentum transport, at least in the optically thick outburst stage of dwarf novae. In this paper we seek to isolate and understand the most generic features of disc convection, and so undertake its study in purely hydrodynamical models. First, we investigate the linear phase of the instabil…
To study properties of magneto-hydrodynamic (MHD) convection and resultant dynamo activities in proto-neutron stars (PNSs), we construct a "PNS in a box" simulation model with solving compressible MHD equation coupled with a nuclear equation of state (EOS) and a simplified leptonic transport. As a demonstration, we apply it to two types of PNS models with different internal structures: fully-convective model and spherical-shell convection model. By varying the spin rate of models, the rotational dependence of convection and dynamo that operate inside the PNS is investigated. We find that, as a…
We study rotating thermal convection in spherical shells. We base our analysis on a set of about 450 direct numerical simulations of the (magneto)hydrodynamic equations under the Boussinesq approximation. The Ekman number ranges from $10^{-3}$ to $10^{-5}$. The supercriticality of the convection reaches about 1000 in some models. Four sets of simulations are considered: non-magnetic simulations and dynamo simulations with either free-slip or no-slip flow boundary conditions. The non-magnetic setup with free-slip boundaries generates the strongest zonal flows. Both non-magnetic simulations with…
The value of the Prandtl number $P$ exerts a strong influence on convection-driven dynamos in rotating spherical shells filled with electrically conducting fluids. Low Prandtl numbers promote dynamo action through the shear provided by differential rotation, while the generation of magnetic fields is more difficult to sustain in high-Prandtl-number fluids where higher values of the magnetic Prandtl number $P_m$ are required. The magnetostrophic approximation often used in dynamo theory appears to be valid only for relatively high values of $P$ and $P_m$. Dynamos with a minimum value of $P_m$ s…
We present a numerical study of quasistatic magnetoconvection in a cubic Rayleigh-Bénard (RB) convection cell subjected to a vertical external magnetic field. For moderate values of the Hartmann number Ha, we find an enhancement of heat transport. Furthermore, a maximum heat transport enhancement is observed at certain optimal $Ha_{opt}$. The enhanced heat transport may be understood as a result of the increased coherency of the thermal plumes, which are elementary heat carriers of the system. To our knowledge this is the first time that a heat transfer enhancement by the stabilising Lorentz f…
We present the results of our investigation on nonlinear overstable rotating magnetoconvection (RMC) in presence of vertical external magnetic field. We focus on the dynamics appearing near the onset of convection by varying the system control parameters, namely, the Taylor number ($\mathrm{Ta}$), the Chandrasekhar number ($\mathrm{Q}$) and the Prandtl number ($\mathrm{Pr}$) in the ranges $750\leq\mathrm{Ta}\leq10^6$, $0 < \mathrm{Q} \leq 10^3$ and $0 < \mathrm{Pr} \leq 0.5$. Three dimensional (3D) direct numerical simulations (DNS) of the governing equations and low-dimensional modeling of th…
In rapidly rotating turbulence (Rossby number much less than unity), the standard mixing length theory for turbulent convection breaks and Coriolis force enters the force balance such that magnetic field eventually depends on rotation. By simplifying the self-sustained magnetohydrodynamics dynamo equations of electrically conducting fluid motion, with the aid of theory of isotropic non-rotating or anisotropic rotating turbulence driven by thermal convection, we make estimations and derive scaling laws for stellar magnetic fields with slow and fast rotation. Our scaling laws are in good agreeme…
We demonstrate that a magneto-convection simulation incorporating essential physical processes governing solar surface convection exhibits turbulent small-scale dynamo action. By presenting a derivation of the energy balance equation and transfer functions for compressible magnetohydrodynamics (MHD), we quantify the source of magnetic energy on a scale-by-scale basis. We rule out the two alternative mechanisms for the generation of small-scale magnetic field in the simulations: the tangling of magnetic field lines associated with the turbulent cascade and Alfvenization of small-scale velocity …
We investigate numerically magnetic field generation by thermal convection with square periodicity cells in a rotating horizontal layer of electrically-conducting fluid with stress-free electrically perfectly conducting boundaries for Rayleigh numbers in the interval 5100\le R\le 5800. Dynamos of three kinds, apparently not encountered before, are presented: 1) Steady and time-periodic regimes, where the flow and magnetic field are symmetric about a vertical axis. In regimes with this symmetry, the global alpha-effect is insignificant, and the complex structure of the system of amplitude equat…
