The absorption of light or radiation drives turbulent convection inside stars, supernovae, frozen lakes and the Earth's mantle. In these contexts, the goal of laboratory and numerical studies is to determine the relation between the internal temperature gradients and the heat flux transported by the turbulent flow. This is the constitutive law of turbulent convection, to be input into large-scale models of such natural flows. However, in contrast with the radiative heating of natural flows, laboratory experiments have focused on convection driven by heating and cooling plates: the heat transport is then severely restricted by boundary layers near the plates, which prevents the realization of the mixing-length scaling-law used in evolution models of geophysical and astrophysical flows. There is therefore an important discrepancy between the scaling-laws measured in laboratory experiments and those used eg. in stellar evolution models. Here we provide experimental and numerical evidence that radiatively driven convection spontaneously achieves the mixing-length scaling regime, also known as the `ultimate' regime of thermal convection. This constitutes the first clear observation of this regime of turbulent convection. Our study therefore bridges the gap between models of natural flows and laboratory experiments. It opens an experimental avenue for a priori determinations of the constitutive laws to be implemented into models of geophysical and astrophysical flows, as opposed to empirical fits of these constitutive laws to the scarce observational data.
The claim by He et al. [Physical Review Letters 108, 024502 (2012)] that their experiment reached the 'ultimate' regime of turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard convection is not justified by their data.
Convection in astrophysical systems must be maintained against dissipation. Although the effects of dissipation are often assumed to be negligible, theory suggests that in strongly stratified convecting fluids, the dissipative heating rate can exceed the luminosity carried by convection. Here we explore this possibility using a series of numerical simulations. We consider two-dimensional numerical models of hydrodynamic convection in a Cartesian layer under the anelastic approximation and demonstrate that the dissipative heating rate can indeed exceed the imposed luminosity. We establish a the…
In this contribution we have briefly introduced the problem of turbulent thermal convection with a particular look at its transition to the ultimate regime and the resolution requirements needed for the direct numerical simulation of this flow.
Using direct numerical simulations of Rayleigh-Bénard convection (RBC) under free-slip boundary condition, we show that the normalized correlation function between the vertical velocity field and the temperature field, as well as the normalized viscous dissipation rate, scales as $Ra^{-0.22}$ for moderately large Rayleigh number $Ra$. This scaling accounts for the Nusselt number ($Nu$) exponent to be around 0.3 observed in experiments. Numerical simulations also reveal that the above normalized correlation functions are constants for the convection simulation under periodic boundary conditions…
Turbulent convection plays a crucial role in many natural environments, ranging from Earth ocean, mantle and outer core, to various astrophysical systems. For such flows with extremely strong thermal driving, an ultimate scaling was proposed for the heat flux and velocity. Despite numerous experimental and numerical studies, a conclusive observation of the ultimate regime has not been reached yet. Here we show that the ultimate scaling can be perfectly realized once the thermal boundary layer is fully decoupled from the viscous boundary layer and locates inside the turbulent bulk. The heat flu…
This work is equivalent to that in {\em Phys. Rev. Lett.} {\bf 123}, 259401 (2019), however, Physical Review Letters prohibited reference to the additional two points in the analysis published by Zhu et al., in {\em Phys. Rev. Lett.} {\bf 123}, 259402 (2019).
We report on the theory of logarithmic temperature profiles in very strongly developed thermal convection in the geometry of a Rayleigh-Benard cell with aspect ratio one and discuss the degree of agreement with the recently measured profiles in the ultimate state of very large Rayleigh number flow. The parameters of the log-profile are calculated and compared with the measure ones. Their physical interpretation as well as their dependence on the radial position are discussed.
Measurements of the Nusselt number $Nu$ and of temperature variations $ΔT_b$ in the bulk fluid are reported for turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard convection of a cylindrical sample. They cover the Rayleigh-number range $10^{9} \alt Ra \alt 3\times 10^{14}$ using He (Prandtl number $Pr = 0.67$), N$_2$ ($Pr = 0.72$) and SF$_6$ ($Pr = 0.79$ to 0.84) at pressures up to 15 bars and near-ambient temperatures. The sample had a height $L=2.24$m and diameter $D = 1.12$m and was located in a new High-Pressure Convection Facility (HPCF) at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization in Göttingen,…
Thermal convection in a horizontal layer with uniform internal heating and stress-free constant-temperature boundaries is analyzed numerically. The work is motivated by the questions arising in development of liquid metal batteries, in which convection is induced by the Joule heating of electrolyte. It is demonstrated that three-dimensional convection cells exist at subcritical Rayleigh numbers.
We report on experimental determinations of the temperature field in the interior (bulk) of turbulent Rayleigh-Benard convection for a cylindrical sample with aspect ratio (diameter over height) of 0.50, both in the classical and in the ultimate state. The Prandtl number was close to 0.8. We find a "logarithmic layer" in which the temperature varies as A*ln(z/L) + B with the distance z from the bottom plate of the sample. The amplitude A varies with radial position r. In the classical state these results are in good agreement with direct numerical simulations (DNS); in the ultimate state there…
Rigorous upper limits on the vertical heat transport in two dimensional Rayleigh-Benard convection between stress-free isothermal boundaries are derived from the Boussinesq approximation of the Navier-Stokes equations. The Nusselt number Nu is bounded in terms of the Rayleigh number Ra according to $Nu \leq 0.2295 Ra^{5/12}$ uniformly in the Prandtl number Pr. This Nusselt number scaling challenges some theoretical arguments regarding the asymptotic high Rayleigh number heat transport by turbulent convection.
What is the final state of turbulence when the driving parameter approaches to infinity? For thermal turbulence, in 1962, Kraichnan proposed a so-called ultimate scaling dependence of the heat transport (quantified by the Nusselt number $\text{Nu}$) on the Rayleigh number ($\text{Ra}$), which can be extrapolated to arbitrarily high $\text{Ra}$. The existence of Kraichnan ultimate scaling has been intensively debated in the past decades. In this work, using a supergravitational thermal convection system, with an effective gravity up to 100 times the Earth's gravity, both Rayleigh number and she…
Two-dimensional direct numerical simulations are conducted for convection sustained by uniform internal heating in a horizontal fluid layer. Top and bottom boundary temperatures are fixed and equal. Prandtl numbers range from 0.01 to 100, and Rayleigh numbers (R) are up to 5x10^5 times the critical R at the onset of convection. The asymmetry between upward and downward heat fluxes is non-monotonic in R. In a broad high-R regime, dimensionless mean temperature scales as R^{-1/5}. We discuss the scaling of mean temperature and heat-flux-asymmetry, which we argue are better diagnostic quantities …
A new regime of turbulent convection has been reported nearly one decade ago, based on global heat transfer measurements at very high Rayleigh numbers. We examine the signature of this "Ultimate Regime" from within the flow itself. A systematic study of probe-size corrections shows that the earlier temperature measurements within the flow were altered by an excessive size of thermometer, but not according to a theoretical model proposed in the literature. Using a probe one order of magnitude smaller than the one used previously, we find evidence that the transition to the Ultimate Regime is in…
In thermal convection, roughness is often used as a means to enhance heat transport, expressed in Nusselt number. Yet there is no consensus on whether the Nusselt vs. Rayleigh number scaling exponent ($\mathrm{Nu} \sim \mathrm{Ra}^β$) increases or remains unchanged. Here we numerically investigate turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard convection over rough plates in two dimensions, up to $\mathrm{Ra}=10^{12}$. Varying the height and wavelength of the roughness elements with over 200 combinations, we reveal the existence of two universal regimes. In the first regime, the local effective scaling exponent ca…
A transition to Kraichnan ultimate regime of convection has been reported in very high Rayleigh numbers experiments, but not in all of them. These apparently contradictory results can be explained by a recent phenomenological model which accounts for the non-ideality of the plate thermal properties [Chillà et al, Physics of Fluids 16:2452 (2004)]. In this paper, we present a direct test of this model, using a low conductivity plate. We found an unaltered transition, not compatible with the model's predictions.
We derive an improved rigorous bound on the space and time averaged temperature $<T>$ of an infinite Prandtl number Boussinesq fluid contained between isothermal no-slip boundaries thermally driven by uniform internal heating. A novel approach is used wherein a singular stable stratification is introduced as a perturbation to a non-singular background profile, yielding the estimate $<T>\geq 0.419[R\log(R)]^{-1/4}$ where $R$ is the heat Rayleigh number. The analysis relies on a generalized Hardy-Rellich inequality that is proved in the appendix.
Convection of an internally heated fluid, confined between top and bottom plates of equal temperature, is studied by direct numerical simulation in two and three dimensions. The unstably stratified upper region drives convection that penetrates into the stably stratified lower region. The fraction of produced heat escaping across the bottom plate, which is one half without convection, initially decreases as convection strengthens. Entering the turbulent regime, this decrease reverses in two dimensions but continues monotonically in three dimensions. The mean fluid temperature, which grows prop…
In thermal convection for very large Rayleigh numbers ($Ra$), the thermal and viscous boundary layers (BL) undergo a transition from a classical state to an ultimate state. In the former state, the BL thicknesses follow a laminar-like Prandtl-Blasius-Polhausen scaling, whereas in the latter, the BLs are turbulent with log-corrections in the sense of Prandtl and von Kármán. Here, we report evidence of this transition via changes in the BL structure of vertical natural convection (VC), which is a buoyancy driven flow between differentially heated vertical walls. The dataset spans $Ra$-values fro…
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…
Heat transport in turbulent thermal convection increases with the thermal forcing, but in almost all studies the rate of this increase is slower than it would be if transport became independent of the molecular diffusivities -- the heat transport scaling is slower than the mixing-length (or `ultimate') scaling. In configurations driven by either thermal boundary conditions or internal heating, thermal boundary layers instead lead to a boundary-limited (or `classical') scaling. With net-zero internal heating and cooling in different regions, mixing-length scaling can occur because heat need not…
The possible transition to the so-called ultimate regime, wherein both the bulk and the boundary layers are turbulent, has been an outstanding issue in thermal convection, since the seminal work by Kraichnan [Phys. Fluids 5, 1374 (1962)]. Yet, when this transition takes place and how the local flow induces it is not fully understood. Here, by performing two-dimensional simulations of Rayleigh-Bénard turbulence covering six decades in Rayleigh number Ra up to $10^{14}$ for Prandtl number Pr $=1$, for the first time in numerical simulations we find the transition to the ultimate regime, namely a…
Inductive heating with high-voltage cables reduces the risk of hydrate formation by raising the temperature of the production fluid in pipelines. Heating the pipeline results in losing a certain fraction of the heat to the surrounding soil through conduction or convection-dominated flow through the soil. However, the amount of heat lost in conduction versus convection and the transition from conduction to convection-dominated heat loss remains unknown. Soil permeability, temperature gradient between cable and mudline, and burial depth influence the mode of heat transfer and the amount of heat …
We report on the transition between two regimes of heat transport in a radiatively driven convection experiment, where a fluid gets heated up within a tunable heating length $\ell$ in the vicinity of the bottom of the tank. The first regime is similar to the one observed in standard Rayleigh-Bénard experiments, the Nusselt number $Nu$ being related to the Rayleigh number $Ra$ through the power-law $Nu \sim Ra^{1/3}$. The second regime corresponds to the "ultimate" or mixing-length scaling regime of thermal convection, where $Nu$ varies as the square-root of $Ra$. Evidence for these two scaling…
Thermal convection driven by internal heat sources and sinks was recently shown experimentally to exhibit the mixing-length, or "ultimate", scaling-regime: the Nusselt number $Nu$ (dimensionless heat flux) increases as the square-root of the Rayleigh-number $Ra$ (dimensionless internal temperature difference). While for standard Rayleigh-Bénard convection this scaling regime was proven to be a rigorous upper bound on the Nusselt number, we show that this is not so for convection driven by internal sources and sinks. To wit, we introduce an asymptotic expansion to derive steady nonlinear soluti…
Transition to the ultimate regime of turbulent convection in stratified inclined duct flow
University of Twente（特温特大学）；Imperial College（帝国理工学院）；University of Rome ‘Tor Vergata’（罗马托维加塔大学）；Gran Sasso Science Institute（格兰萨索科学研究所）；Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization（马克斯·普朗克动力学与自组织研究所）
Direct Numerical Simulation have been carried out for a two dimensional flow in a Lid driven cavity at Reynolds number 5000 and Prandtl number 7 with water as the working fluid. Both the side walls of the enclosure are insulated(i.e. adiabatic boundary condition), while the bottom plate is at higher temperature and the top wall is at colder temperature. Effects of heating of the bottom wall and movement of the top lid have been investigated by conducting numerical simulations at different Richardson numbers by varying from low and moderate magnitudes within the limits of Boussinesq-approximati…
We use highly resolved numerical simulations to study turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard convection in a cell with sinusoidally rough upper and lower surfaces in two dimensions for $Pr = 1$ and $Ra = \left[4 \times 10^6, 3 \times 10^9\right]$. By varying the wavelength $λ$ at a fixed amplitude, we find an optimal wavelength $λ_{\text{opt}}$ for which the Nusselt-Rayleigh scaling relation is $\left(Nu-1 \propto Ra^{0.483}\right)$ maximizing the heat flux. This is consistent with the upper bound of Goluskin and Doering \cite{Goluskin:2016} who prove that $Nu$ can grow no faster than ${\cal O} (Ra^{1/2})$…
The mean vertical heat transport $\langle wT \rangle$ in convection between isothermal plates driven by uniform internal heating is investigated by means of rigorous bounds. These are obtained as a function of the Rayleigh number $R$ by constructing feasible solutions to a convex variational problem, derived using a formulation of the classical background method in terms of quadratic auxiliary functions. When the fluid's temperature relative to the boundaries is allowed to be positive or negative, numerical solution of the variational problem shows that best previous bound $\langle wT \rangle …
On the long nuclear time scale of stellar main-sequence evolution, even weak mixing processes can become relevant for redistributing chemical species in a star. We investigate a process of "differential heating," which occurs when a temperature fluctuation propagates by radiative diffusion from the boundary of a convection zone into the adjacent radiative zone. The resulting perturbation of the hydrostatic equilibrium causes a flow that extends some distance from the convection zone. We study a simplified differential-heating problem with a static temperature fluctuation imposed on a solid bou…
Heat and momentum transfer in wall-bounded turbulent flow, coupled with the effects of wall-roughness, is one of the outstanding questions in turbulence research. In the standard Rayleigh-Bénard problem for natural thermal convection, it is notoriously difficult to reach the so-called ultimate regime in which the near-wall boundary layers are turbulent. Following the analyses proposed by Kraichnan [Phys. Fluids vol 5., pp. 1374-1389 (1962)] and Grossmann & Lohse [Phys. Fluids vol. 23, pp. 045108 (2011)], we instead utilize recent direct numerical simulations of forced convection over a rough w…
We present measurements of the orientation $θ_0$ and temperature amplitude $δ$ of the large-scale circulation in a cylindrical sample of turbulent Rayleigh-Benard convection (RBC) with aspect ratio $Γ\equiv D/L = 1.00$ ($D$ and $L$ are the diameter and height respectively) and for the Prandtl number $Pr \simeq 0.8$. Results for $θ_0$ revealed a preferred orientation with upflow in the West, consistent with a broken azimuthal invariance due to Earth's Coriolis force [see \cite{BA06b}]. They yielded the azimuthal diffusivity $D_θ$ and a corresponding Reynolds number $Re_θ$ for Rayleigh numbers o…
Influence of Aspect ratio in the Convection in Rotating Annulus In the Presence of Localized Heating
School of Artificial Intelligence, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham（阿迈塔维迪亚佩塔姆大学人工智能学院）；Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology（印度理工学院机械工程系）
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
We present an extensive study of Boussinesq thermal convection including a temperature-dependent internal heating source, based on numerical three-dimensional simulations. The temperature dependence mimics triple-$α$ nuclear reactions and the fluid geometry is a rotating spherical shell. These are key ingredients for the study of convective accreting neutron star oceans. A dimensionless parameter ${\rm Ra}_n$, measuring the relevance of nuclear heating, is defined. We explore how flow characteristics change with increasing ${\rm Ra}_n$ and give an astrophysical motivation. The onset of convect…
The Rayleigh number $Ra$ dependence of the Nusselt number $Nu$ in turbulent Rayleigh--Bénard convection is numerically investigated for a moderate and low Prandtl number, $Pr=0.7$ and $0.021$, respectively. Here we specifically address the case of a Boussinesq fluid in a planar configuration with smooth horizontal walls and notionally infinite aspect ratio. Numerical simulations up to $Ra=10^{16}$ for $Pr=0.7$ and up to $Ra=8\times10^{13}$ for $Pr=0.021$ are made feasible on state-of-the-art workstations by utilising the stochastic one-dimensional turbulence (ODT) model. The ODT model paramete…
We discuss two aspects of turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard convection (RBC) on the basis of high-resolution direct numerical simulations in a unique setting; a closed cylindrical cell of aspect ratio of one. First, we present a comprehensive comparison of statistical quantities such as energy dissipation rates and boundary layer thickness scales. Data are used from three simulation run series at Prandtl numbers $Pr$ that cover two orders of magnitude. In contrast to most previous studies in RBC the focus of the present work is on convective turbulence at very low Prandtl numbers including $Pr=0.021$ …
The downward flow in a vertical duct with one heated and three thermally insulated walls is analyzed numerically using the two-dimensional approximation valid in the asymptotic limit of an imposed strong transverse magnetic field. The work is motivated by the design of liquid metal blankets with poloidal ducts for future nuclear fusion reactors, in which the main component of the magnetic field is perpendicular to the flow direction and very strong heating is applied at the wall facing the reaction chamber. The flow is found to be steady-state or oscillating depending on the strengths of the h…
We report experimental results for heat-transport measurements by turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard convection in a cylindrical sample of aspect ratio $Γ\equiv D/L = 1.00$ ($D = 1.12$ m is the diameter and $L = 1.12$ m the height). They are for the Rayleigh-number range $4\times10^{11} \alt \Ra \alt 2\times10^{14}$ and for Prandtl numbers \Pra\ between 0.79 and 0.86. For $\Ra < \Ra^*_1 \simeq 2\times 10^{13}$ we find $\Nu = N_0 \Ra^{γ_{eff}}$ with $γ_{eff} = 0.321 \pm 0.002$ and $N_0 = 0.0776$, consistent with classical turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard convection in a system with laminar boundary layers belo…
The central open question about Rayleigh--Bénard convection -- buoyancy-driven flow in a fluid layer heated from below and cooled from above -- is how vertical heat flux depends on the imposed temperature gradient in the strongly nonlinear regime where the flows are typically turbulent. The quantitative challenge is to determine how the Nusselt number $Nu$ depends on the Rayleigh number $Ra$ in the $Ra\to\infty$ limit for fluids of fixed finite Prandtl number $Pr$ in fixed spatial domains. Laboratory experiments, numerical simulations, and analysis of Rayleigh's mathematical model have yet to …
Multiple chaotic and turbulent regimes in Rayleigh-Bénard convection have been studied and classified from the onset of deterministic chaos to the fully developed turbulence using the distributed chaos approach supported by results of laboratory experiments and numerical simulations. It is shown that the regimes can replace each other depending on value of the Rayleigh number and location in the convection cell (in the bulk of the flow or in the boundary layers). The inertial-buoyancy and helicity based invariants play crucial role in the formation of the regimes. Transition from the classical…
Direct numerical simulations have been performed for turbulent thermal convection between horizontal no-slip, permeable walls with a distance $H$ and a constant temperature difference $ΔT$ at the Rayleigh number $Ra=3\times10^{3}-10^{10}$. On the no-slip wall surfaces $z=0$, $H$ the wall-normal (vertical) transpiration velocity is assumed to be proportional to the local pressure fluctuation, i.e. $w=-βp'/ρ, +βp'/ρ$ (Jiménez et al., J. Fluid Mech., vol. 442, 2001, pp. 89-117), and the property of the permeable wall is given by the permeability parameter $βU$ normalised with the buoyancy-induced…
Previous numerical studies have shown that the "ultimate regime of thermal convection" can be attained in a Rayleigh-Benard cell when the kinetic and thermal boundary layers are eliminated by replacing the walls with periodic boundary conditions (homogeneous Rayleigh-Benard convection). Then, the heat transfer scales like Nu ~ Ra^{1/2} and turbulence intensity as Re ~ Ra^{1/2}, where the Rayleigh number Ra indicates the strength of the driving force. However, experiments never operate in unbounded domains and it is important to understand how confinement might alter the approach to this ultima…
In a range of physical systems, the first instability in Rayleigh-Bernard convection between nearly thermally insulating horizontal plates is large scale. This holds for thermal convection of fluids saturating porous media. Large-scale thermal convection in a horizontal layer is governed by remarkably similar equations both in the presence of a porous matrix and without it, with only one additional term for the latter case, which, however, vanishes under certain conditions (e.g., two-dimensional flows or infinite Prandtl number). We provide a rigorous derivation of long-wavelength equations fo…
Generation of thermal convection flow in the liquid metal battery, a device recently proposed as a promising solution for the problem of the short-term energy storage, is analyzed using a numerical model. It is found that convection caused by Joule heating of electrolyte during charging or discharging is virtually unavoidable. It exists in laboratory prototypes larger than a few cm in size and should become much stronger in larger-scale batteries. The phenomenon needs further investigation in view of its positive (enhanced mixing of reactants) and negative (loss of efficiency and possible disr…
The corner roll (CR) in the Rayleigh-Bénard (RB) convection accounts for the behaviors of heat transport and convection flow at the corner. Streamlines of the three-dimensional direct numerical simulations for $10^8<Ra<5\times10^9$ show that CR presents well-defined similarity and multi-layer structure. A stream function for CR is developed by homotopy and the structure ensemble dynamics. The model presents the scaling of Reynolds number of corner roll $Re_{cr}\sim Ra^{1/4}$. Scaling of CR scale $r = 0.77 Ra^{-0.085}$ indicates strong near-wall shearing induced by wind and provides a probabili…
The boundary layer flow in a Rayleigh-Bénard convection cell of rectangular shape has been visualized in this fluid dynamics video. The experiment has been undertaken in air at a Rayleigh number $Ra=1.3\times 10^{10}$ and a Prandtl number $Pr=0.7$. Various sequences captured at selected positions of the heating plate show that the boundary layer is a very transient flow region characterized by coherent structures that permanently evolve. It becomes fully turbulent in the areas where the large-scale circulation impinge or leave the bottom plate.
We present a new hybrid discrete exterior calculus (DEC) and finite difference (FD) method to simulate fully three-dimensional Boussinesq convection in spherical shells subject to internal heating and basal heating, relevant in the planetary and stellar phenomenon. We employ DEC to compute the surface spherical flows, taking advantage of its unique features of structure preservation (e.g., conservation of secondary quantities like kinetic energy) and coordinate system independence, while we discretize the radial direction using FD method. The grid employed for this novel method is free of prob…
