Axially homogeneous Rayleigh-Bénard convection in a cylindrical cell

L.E. Schmidt, E. Calzavarini, Detlef Lohse, F. Toschi, Roberto Verzicco

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27 Citations (Scopus)
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Abstract

Previous numerical studies have shown that the ‘ultimate regime of thermal convection’ can be attained in a Rayleigh–Bénard cell when the kinetic and thermal boundary layers are eliminated by replacing both lateral and horizontal walls with periodic boundary conditions (homogeneous Rayleigh–Bénard 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 (for fixed values of Pr, which is the ratio between kinematic viscosity and thermal diffusivity). However, experiments never operate in unbounded domains and it is important to understand how confinement might alter the approach to this ultimate regime. Here we consider homogeneous Rayleigh–Bénard convection in a laterally confined geometry – a small-aspect-ratio vertical cylindrical cell – and show evidence of the ultimate regime as Ra is increased: in spite of the lateral confinement and the resulting kinetic boundary layers, we still find Nu~Re~Ra$_{1/2}$ at . Further, it is shown that the system supports solutions composed of modes of exponentially growing vertical velocity and temperature fields, with Ra as the critical parameter determining the properties of these modes. Counter-intuitively, in the low-Ra regime, or for very narrow cylinders, the numerical simulations are susceptible to these solutions, which can dominate the dynamics and lead to very high and unsteady heat transfer. As Ra is increased, interaction between modes stabilizes the system, evidenced by the increasing homogeneity and reduced fluctuations in the root-mean-square velocity and temperature fields. We also test that physical results become independent of the periodicity length of the cylinder, a purely numerical parameter, as the aspect ratio is increased.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)52-68
Number of pages17
JournalJournal of fluid mechanics
Volume691
Issue number9
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2012

Keywords

  • IR-79929
  • METIS-285893

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